Flat Rate Versus Meters

Abstract

There has always been some controversy as to the relative merits of conducting water works systems on a flat-rate basis and an allmeter basis with conditions otherwise the same, and as to whether the benefits to be derived warrant the installation of the all-meter system. The owners and operators are practically unanimously in support of the meter system, while the consumers uniformly contend for the flat-rate basis; and this fact alone tends to show upon whose side the benefits of the meter system lie. Of course, no criterion can be established for the entire country from statistics gathered in any one locality and, furthermore it would be foolish for any one man to undertake from his own experience to prescribe the best operating methods for localities other than his own and operating under conditions with which he is not familiar. The author has been manager of the Water Works System at Tuscaloosa, Alabama, for about eight years. During this time the plant there has been operated first upon a flat-rate basis and later upon a practically all-meter basis, and he is, therefore, in a position to give facts and figures, by a comparison of which the many advantages of the meter system can be easily seen. However, he certainly does not wish to be regarded in the light of trying to tell other managers and superintendents how to run their business, or to insinuate that he knows it all, or any more than any one else. But, having operated his plant under both systems and had opportunity to observe carefully the results of both operations, it has occurred to him that probably the figures covering these operations might be of interest to other operators who perhaps at this time find themselves under conditions similar to those at Tuscaloosa when the change from the flat-rate basis to the meter basis was contemplated.