Abstract

Transportation area includes air, rail, motor, pipeline, inland water, freight forwarders and ocean transportation. Even excluding the area of transportation engineering, the assignment to prepare a core bibliography is hazardous because of the size of the field. This economic sector is, however, one in which businessmen can read with profit. Much of the operating cost of any business is in distribution, transportation and allied areas. One result has been that government regulation in the area has worked badly since 1920. Public policy simply has an unrealistic view of what the transportation industry actually is. Transportation literature over years follows problems most urgent during the period. Before 1920, most of the literature dealt with such questions as government public utility control and how such tight market structures might be regulated for the good of all. Legal issues have always been important in transportation, both because of its public utility status and problems arising from the unworkability of regulation in the several transport industries.