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Railroads in general actively discourage the 'small volume' shipper. The logistics and efforts required to switch a free running box car around a terminal, or between terminals to service a one shot customer for one box car load is not financially rewarding. <br /> <br />The railroads stock in trade is 'semi-predictable' levels of traffic between established existing customers. These customers have specific equipment requirements to most effectively handle the shipment of their product. These customers also have a sufficient volume of traffic that it benefits both the customer and the railroad to have specific cars assigned to their service, moving loaded in on direction and moving empty back to the shipper on the return trip. Rail sales people are always looking for companions moves to increase the utility of such cars, such has loading product from A to D, moving empty from D to F and moving 'raw' materials from F back to A. Those moves exist, but they are rare. <br /> <br />Railroads operate best when they are predictable, both in the timing of movements and in the volume of movements. Railroads tend to become congested and inefficient when it loses it level of predictability. Actively seeking the small one off shipper would increase the level of unpredictability, and thus increasing the potential for congestion.
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