Union Pacific to Truck UPS Traffic for Four Weeks

[Anonymous]

Union Pacific to truck it on Dallas-Memphis route
Seeking to recover from a round of delays, Union Pacific will start next week shifting a portion of cargo it carries for the United Parcel Service onto trucks, Bloomberg News reports.

Union Pacific spokesman Norman Black says the company will pay truckers to carry United Parcel packages between Los Angeles and Chicago and between Dallas and Memphis for four weeks.

Union Pacific won United Parcel's business in 2003, offering to deliver freight within 60 hours on a coast-to-coast train once a week in each direction, in conjunction with the CSX Corp.

The railroad is seeking to recover from a round of delays that began last year, costing as much as $50 million.

[JoeKoh]

It doesnt help when csx runs the ups train on a track with a speed restriction due to a work zone here in Ohio.
stay safe
Joe

[Anonymous]

Yeah...I know it gets plugged here at Collinwood Terminal....Nuff Said

[Modelcar]

....Is this 4-weeks of truck usage by UP for the UPS business to get the operation back on track as far as delivery schedules are concerned and or until they get the railroad route opened up and cleared so they can meet the schedule they signed onto to haul the traffic by rail.....Just think of the numbers of drivers necessary to replace a train or trains and the amount of trucks to be added to the highways...

[Anonymous]

No surprise but put it on BNSF as the 891 Train or the Symble could be Little Ferry to Hobart (LFHO) and Hobart to Little Ferry(HOLF)

DOGGY

[DTomajko]

The railroads trucking UPS traffic is nothing new. During the 1999 Christmas season NS paid for truckers to handle UPS between Pittsburgh and Chicago or Harrisburg / New Jersey due to the Conrail breakup.UPS also hires company drivers and owner-operators to help with Christmas time extra freight. I did notice recently that NS was praised by UPS for its handling of the Christmas season traffic.UPS is a very important customer to the railroads and can be a very demanding as well as a well-paying customer.

[Anonymous]

The UPS problem on Union Pacific is two-fold.

First, UP hasn't been meeting its delivery commitments, so in order to salve that, they're going to do some trucking..... however the plot thickens...

The UP train is such a hot, expedited rocket that it causes havoc with all of the overtakes on double track on the Central Corridor as well as the meets and overtakes on single track (Sunset / Golden State Route).

Other trains go in the hole well ahead to avoid delaying the UPS train. Once the UPS train clears, the disptacher has to get the RR moving again. Basically it leaves a wake of destruction behind it. The RR's cry like babies when they have to do this for Amtrak, but will sign-up to do it for UPS.

In a dubious homage to the Blue Streak, some who end up in the UPS back-wash, in-affectionately call it the "The Brown Streak." [xx(]

[locomutt]

Since Louisville is the international air hub for UPS, does that mean that we in Louisville could get to see more trains? Sure would be nice.

[Anonymous]

Jeez, I didn't even know that UPS shipped via train.

I thought all they did was truck and airplane.

Well it's nice for me to hear about the continued use of trains, even though at the moment it isn't quite working out.

Do these UPS parcels just go in normal box cars?

[Anonymous]

Hey Mac Guy,
Actually UPS is one of the largest Trailer-on-flat-car shippers in the US. The drive the premium service network on BNSF and on CSX. They also run some on NS and the train mentioned above on UP.

If you visit Chicago, their main Chicago area sorting center is right tight against BNSF Willow Springs ramp. They have a private gate into the ramp. Much of your ground service packages go via rail. Also, if you ship 2nd day and there is a weekend in there, they will many times ship by rail because the weekend gives them 2 free days in order to still deliver to you on the 2nd "business" day.

UP used to haul massive amounts of UPS. When they merged with SP back in 1997, their service tanked really, really hard. UPS shifted a lot to BNSF at that time. UP just started to win some back and guess what...... service tanked again.

The biggest trailer based intermodal companies in the US area... in no particular order .. Schneider National, Roadway, Yellow & UPS.

The Less Than Truck Load guys (Roadway and Yellow) drive some pretty hot train service as well. Of course, UPS and the LTL guys pay a pretty high rate to ride those hot trains.

[Anonymous]

Hey I just did some math on that $50Million dollar figure above.

Its 1,615 miles from LA to Memphis.
If UP has to run these loads on "team" service (2 drivers in the truck) that will cost about $2.50 per mile.

1,615 miles x $ 2.50 per mile = $4,037 per load

$50 Mill divided by $4,037 per load = 12,383 loads.

12,383 loads divided by 150 loads per train = 82 trains.
(Rember UPS uses mostly 28' pup trailers so they get more units per train)

I think that UP only runs this train 2 days per week in each direction, so that's 4 trains per week.

82 trains divided by 4 trains per week = 20 weeks (or about 5 months).

I guess if you divide the shorter Memphis - Dallas train into the mix, it shortens the time frame. Interesting how quickly you can chew up $50 Million.

[greyhounds]

You can get an owner operator team for about $0.90/mile give or take a penny.
You have to supply the trailer; but the tractor, maintenance on the tractor, fuel, drivers' compensation, etc. is included in that $0.90.

Just wonder what's going to happen after four weeks. Is the train fairy going to spinkle some magic dust on the Sunset Route and make it all better?

KS

[Anonymous]

Hi Greyhounds,
Depending on where you are, a solo Owner Operator can in fact be had for about $ .90 / mile. I had based my estimate on team drivers which means all costs double since you pay 2 drivers, run twice as many miles in a day, burn twice the fuel, double the wear and tear on the tractor, etc. Also, I was factoring that a good portion comes out of Southern California which is a more expensive head-haul market, but then again, it goes the other way too and if you're buying trucks in Jersey, its a fair amount cheaper.

I do hope that UP has a big whopping barrel o' pixie dust cuz they're going to need to sprinkle it across about 25,000 miles of track! ;-)