News Wire: Federal regulators scrutinize a range of Class I railroad charges

[Brian Schmidt]

WASHINGTON – Federal regulators are shining a spotlight on Class I railroad demurrage and accessorial charges, which the railroads levy on customers for things such as car storage, special switching requests, and releasing freight cars with inc...

http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2018/12/21-federal-regulators-scrutinize-a-range-of-class-i-railroad-charges

[SFbrkmn]

This is indeed true and clients need to stand up to the carriers, Case in point is here inWichita. Spirit Areo Systems builds the 737 narrow body fuselages for Boeing that are shipped to Seattle. With the holiday shutdown, the regular job that switches Spirit was abolished and will return likely 1-2--whenever the adv closes. In the meantine, two of the 61 yd trks @ Wichita are already filled w/empty cars that will be spotted later in the wk by an xtra bd job. Spirit will be charged for a so called "xtra switch" that will pay out the nose compared to if the regular job stayed intact.

[BaltACD]

Industries, for decades, have featured paying accesorial charges (demmurage, intraplant switching etc.) have been something only fools pay.  With the advent of computerization and centralized customer service operations the railroads finally have a handle on the 'games' customers try to play and are charging the customer for their plays.

[greyhounds]

SFbrkmn

This is indeed true and clients need to stand up to the carriers, Case in point is here inWichita. Spirit Areo Systems builds the 737 narrow body fuselages for Boeing that are shipped to Seattle. With the holiday shutdown, the regular job that switches Spirit was abolished and will return likely 1-2--whenever the adv closes. In the meantine, two of the 61 yd trks @ Wichita are already filled w/empty cars that will be spotted later in the wk by an xtra bd job. Spirit will be charged for a so called "xtra switch" that will pay out the nose compared to if the regular job stayed intact.

So?

There is a whole lot more we need to know about this.  Does the job switch Spirit exclussively?  Does Spirit normally shut down for the holidays?  Are the other industries (if any) shut down for the holidays?  The railroad should not be expected to keep a crew on duty for several days to make one switch.

If Spirit needs a special move during a normal shut down period they should expect to pay for it.  There's no such thing as a free lunch.

[blue streak 1]

greyhounds

 If Spirit needs a special move during a normal shut down period they should expect to pay for it.  There's no such thing as a free lunch.

 

 

But the persons receiving goods or sending them out have had a free lunch on RRs, trucking, and other shippers such as FED EX and UPS.  Now these shipping companys have finally found out how these free lunches worked and are starting to charge for the baloney sandwiches !