THE PIGGYBACK BOOM
TOP a steep, truck-clogged grade in California's Sierra Nevada moun tains, the Southern Pacific Railroad recently erected a sign: "Take the trucks off the highway. Put the trucks on piggyback." The railroad's sign symbolized a growing problem for the U.S. trucking industry. Piggybacking, which was originally envisioned as a happy marriage between trucks and railroads, has zoomed 180% (to some 210,000 carloadings annually) since 1954, and the outlook is for a $1 billion business by 1965. But so far, railroads have puffed off with most of the profits. Of 39 roads...