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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by CSSHEGEWISCH [quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by futuremodal Geez, so many off the wall retorts, so little time..... CSSHEGEWISCH - For the umpteenth time, trucks are best at shorthaul, railroads best at medium to long haul of bulk commodities, intermodal combines the two aspects, thus railroad's true competition is other railroads........wait a minute, I just realized I'm kicking a dead horse! [/quote] This all sounds quite nice in theory and it may be true but that's not how it's working out in the real world. Long-haul trucking, efficient or not, is a reality and, short of regulatory restrictions, is not going to go away. FedEx uses team drivers on its double bottoms to provide competition for UPS intermodal trains, again the FedEx operation may be as theoretically efficient as the UPS operation, but it is the competition and they do have a share of the market. Insisting that long-haul trucking is less efficient than rail does not mean that it isn't real competition to rail for business. Also remember, the Laffer Curve was an interesting economic theory, but the reality proved to be quite different. [/quote] CSSHEGEWISCH, Consider this - Is trucking really "competition" for railroads, or is trucking in fact the primary feeder system for today's railroads? If not for trucks, what besides coal could be moved independently by railroads from source to destination? Grain? Gotta get it from the farm to the unit train facilty somehow. Containers? Worthless unless you can back them up to the loading dock. Chemicals? Perhaps in industry to industry moves, but probably not for retail applications beyond the occassional carload. Maybe auto parts, etc. but the point is that trucks are not the competition for moving auto parts or industrial chemicals, instead they are the feeders for just about everything but coal. Independent of the role as feeder for railroads/barges, trucks are mostly moving time sensitive cargos and/or small lot shipments and/or filling in the gaps left by railroad retrenchment/service denials. Truckers are not out there trying to bid for commodities currently being moved by railroads between nominal railroad terminals. They are bidding for such in combination with barge lines and/or other railroads, but certainly not head to head independently. Put away you AAR manifesto, because the idea that trucks are THE competition for railroads is just patently false.
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