Do I assume correctly that with fuel prices the tofc traffic is doing well? Are there sufficient cars for the loadings
I am seeing more trucking company trailers (45-48") on TOFC trains. Also pup trailers from Yellow (The "new" Yellow is the former YellowRoadway Corp (YRC)+US Freightways-they decided to combine everything under the Yellow name and logo)
Talking with my friends who are still in the trucking industry, a few have decided to park their trucks and take on part time jobs. Fuel costs, maintenance costs, and no increase in pay. The price of tires has skyrocketed, and insurance companies are driving their rates up too. Freight has to be delivered and railroads can get it closer but not all the way. Something has to change soon or it's going to get worse.
Pete.
wrench567a few have decided to park their trucks and take on part time jobs.
Not seeing that down here. Trucks are everywhere, and we can't find people to fill all the open jobs. Too much work for contractors and not anywhere near enough skilled workers.
The housing market is out of control. My house's value has shot up like a rocket in the past three years. You can't rent anything decent for less than $1,500.00 per month now.
Single-destination-long-distance-trailers should be on trains, it only makes sense. The big problem is that it adds a delay while the traileris loaded and unloaded from the flat car.
Do we still have big intermodal yards to handle the transfer of loaded highway trailers in mass?
When semi tractors are only used for the few final miles, battery powered trucks can become a reality.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Going back to the last year before things got screwy, the AAR weekly for May 11, 2019 reported 270,622 for the intermodal volume. The May 7, 2022 report listed 273,190 containers and trailers. But this is down from 287,290 in 2021.
So, no, volume is not up because of fuel prices.
JB Hunt is adding more containers.
Russell
Trucks are still used for the "last mile" pick-up and delivery, and it's probably not quite so seamless to just switch over to sending a lot of stuff by rail as you're making out.
First, a lot of the trucking industry is set up for door-to-door delivery.
Second, TOFC kinda only makes sense competitively for long distance hauls and large volumes of trailers/containers handled.
To switch over to rail shipping, first there actually has to be an intermodal shipping route that actually connects near to your origin and destination. Then you've got to get your delivery truck drivers (which remember still need to exist on both ends) into/out of the intermodal facility to deliver and pick up the boxes. Which will probably spend at least some amount of time stored on the ground before being transfered to the next mode of travel. Finally the train is loaded, and gets sent on it's way. Maybe the car with your container has to get transferred between multiple trains or even railroads before it gets to the destination terminal before all the unloading and transferring between modes happens again.
While the truck would have had your load delivered in under 24 hours, it's now taking several days.
As efficient as rail transportation is, it's not great for speed, and the intermodal terminals can be bottlenecks.
Chris van der Heide
My Algoma Central Railway Modeling Blog
cv_acr your load delivered in under 24 hours,
csxns cv_acr your load delivered in under 24 hours, Can a truck do that from California to North Carolina?
Can a truck do that from California to North Carolina?
Obviously not. But it might between points on the seaboard.
You conveniently ignored that I said TOFC makes sense for long distance.
This article was from the Trains Magazine News Wire April 11, 2022
CSX testing Florida-Northeast perishables market with premium intermodal service
https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/csx-testing-florida-northeast-perishables-market-with-premium-intermodal-service/
Seems very viable..
Neal
cv_acrTrucks are still used for the "last mile" pick-up and delivery,
Also remember the "last mile" can be way longer than a "mile". Railroads have large intermodal hubs every several hundred miles. So that "last mile" can still be a hundred miles or more if the destination isn't near the hub.
Shippers like UPS will have drivers on hand and pull grounded trailers ASAP. Other single trailer shipments might not get picked up for hours or even days (trucking problem, not railroad problem).
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
As a modeler of the early days of TOFC, I have studied its history. My father worked in the trucking industry most of his life and for the Southern Railroad in the early days of TOFC.
The age old problem is the same, make the transition to and from the train as smooth as possible.
In the 80's I sold MATCO tools to the repair shop at the Conrail intermodal terminal in Baltimore - watched it operations all the time. Lots of the traffic was drayage containers, off loaded from the docks just a few miles away. Some of that stuff sat at the marine terminal longer than the whole rest of the trip combined.
In my opinion, the best system would be like the early days of piggyback, with the railroads also owning/controling the trucks. In todays world the railroads could form co-ops with the truckers for a seamless and better managed customer experiance. It would never be perfect for every shipper, but just like the big over the road carriers, regular routes could be established and run with greater speed and efficency.
And, personally, I think this "just in time" thing is crap. Covid has shown it weak points - one little disruption and it all goes to pieces, wasting millions of the dollars supposedly saved. Assembly lines stopped, shelves empty, sales lost, because the bean counters don't like inventory.......
I could be wrong.....
Sheldon
csxns JB Hunt is adding more containers. Also OTR companies like KKLM, Marten, Frozen Food Express, and Yellow/YRC have domestic containers.