tree68 pone It would be interesting to price it by pool car operator. Where can I get a list of operators and the areas they service?
pone It would be interesting to price it by pool car operator. Where can I get a list of operators and the areas they service?
The service you're looking for is called a freight forwarder; they consolidate smaller shipments intended for the same region into truckloads or carloads (though with the continuing exodus of high-value freight from non-containerized rail movement, I doubt that there's much demand for the latter anymore) and used to cover operating expenses and profit from the differential in rates.
A few of them still operate, and their equipment shows up on TOFC trains -- Clipper and Arrow/Lifschutz come immediately to mind, But the margins are thin, the ranks are thinning, and I doubt you'll see much interest in a one-time, possibly hard-to-load shipment. The business itself doesn't get much attention, so if anyone here can provide some links on how LCL and forwarder traffic was handled in an earlier day, it would make some interesting reading -- at least for me.
These guys may be able to handle rocks .. ;)
https://www.uship.com/
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