We are starting to get detention time paid for. One broker tried to remove it from the contract before we hauled the load we refused to haul it. One itty bitty problem the broker ran into. It was a hazmat load we were the only hazmat carrier that had the equipment in the area. Needless to say we got the load anyway.
Were this is biting receivers big time are the grocery warehouse and distribution centers that demand drivers hire lumpers to unload their products they ordered so they can use 1 or 2 people to just check the loads in. Now they are being hammered with thousands in fees extra for delayed trucks is going to hurt their companies bottom lines. So they have a choice hire more people to get the problem solved or keep eating the extra cost .
There is a big adjustment in the truckload business, particularly in the 650 - 800 mile range (per my son in 3PL and trucking customers of mine).
A customer of mine indicated 25-35% rate increases are being accepted without negotiations, which should tell the trucker that even those increases are too low. The shippers/receivers are going to need to clean up their operations in order to adjust.
Cats...are you getting the detention charges these days?
Greyhound is right that NS should own the Baltimore - Chicago moves. They run a daily 24M between Chicago - Baltimore, probably at the insistence of UPS. The train typically has about 50 containers/trailers...usually about 50% of which are UPS and some international containers also. Today's 24M had 65 containers/trailers with 34 UPS. Now...why arent the truckers/brokers piggybacking (pun intended). You know it is going to be on tight schedule since it is UPS. Schedule is leave Englewood at 545am with delivery in Baltimore at 8am the next morning. My guess is NS is seeing incremental increases to this and other TOFC type priority trains. I do not have data, only antedotal observations.
Speaking of antedotal obs...Amazon trailers are now showing up on the NS hot intermodals. The NS train 22W from Chicago to Rutherford, Pa...another big UPS train has had Amazon trailers recently...last nights had 12 such trailers.
Meanwhile the spot market for truckloads is thru the roof. Had a customer tell me (gleefully) of a $975 move for 90 miles. This was what was offered "on the board" by a very large industrial supply company.
Things are changing, rapidly. Can the rails gather permanent market share?Ed
That isn't hard to do at all. If the driver is delayed getting loaded it becomes tight. However what carriers are doing is running teams then have another local driver deliver the load at the other end. However if the load is on time leaving the plant then the solo will run it to the other end. IA IL PA are all 70 MPH states and IN OH are 65 MPH states so in 11 hours he can easily cover 650 miles in a shift. The most my husband ever did in 29 hours under the old system where it was 10/8 was over 1300 in 20 hours going west. He covered from Grand Island NE to Boomtown west of Reno in that timeframe then waited for his break to be over and CALDOT to reopen Donner. A motivated driver can and will make that run easy.
Well, maybe NS and CSX are out of equipment in Baltimore due to the business surge. So the spices moved in whatever transportation equipment was available. And hang the price. Maybe.
For those not from Chicago, Jewel is the brand name of the top grocery chain in the area. It has a major distribution facility in the close in suburb of Melrose Park.
But Chicago-Baltimore is a lane the railroads should "own" in both directions. A good railroad marketing team (with cooperation from the operating folks) should be able to profitably dominate the lane and make over the road trucking a very distant second option for most commodities. $2.50/container mile is a great rate for the railroad. (I know, you've got to cover things such as drayage out of that, it's still great.)
I agree with Overmod, the e-log mandate for truckers appeared to offer good opportunities for rail intermodal. It enforces the truckers' hours of service rules which had sometimes been honored in the breach more than not. Right now, we're in a transition period. As of 12/18/2017 truckers are supposed to be using the e-logs, and they can be fined if they don't have them installed. As of 4/1/2018 a truck without e-logs can and will be taken out of service on the spot. This would strand a load in the middle of nowhere.
All this is forcing motor transport costs up and making rail more competitive. We can only hope that the railroads did some planning for this. We just don't know whether they did or didn't.
I've often expressed my frustration about the railroads ignoring the large, steady, long haul movements of meat and poultry. Sioux City, IA is a nexus of meat production. It's 1,299 miles from Sioux City to Newark, NJ. To make a 2nd morning delivery a single driver would have to average 650 miles in each of two 11 hour driving segments with a 10 hour rest stop between segments. E-logs will enforce the 10 hour stop. I think that's going to be hard to do. Am I right?
Shippers and receivers both have found out in the last 2 months were the logjam was in the logistics chain and it's them. They pushed for years for JIT delivery and cut back on staff to load and unload. Now when their feet are being held to the fire their screaming. Well we've been saying it for 30 year's as an industry. That the real issue wasn't in the HOS but delays at shippers and receivers. Now the light's hit them and their squirming about how they treat driver's. Not allowing safe parking for driver's who ran out of hours waiting on their docks. No access to restrooms yes that still happens. No break room access for food or water .Their being called on it and plus being forced to pay for delayed trucks and overall more in freight cost.
2400 bucks back from Baltimore minus the tolls about 2.50 a mile with the fuel surcharge figured in. Spices also pay higher than average do to new regulations regarding food transportation. Broker accepted our demand on the rate so we got the load .
greyhoundsI see this as a railroad marketing failure. Big time.
And reading between the lines, a far, far greater failure is not exploiting the problems mentioned as ensuing from the e-log mandate. If I were in marketing almost anywhere, particularly with recognized high traffic sources impacted by the follow-on issues, I'd be working hard and promoting what I came up with. I don't see many of the trucker problems resolving with consolidation of traffic into those firms that effectively support e-log tech and requirements, either, so the opportunity may be structural and time, money, and even capacity increases relatively low-risk as a result.
I see this as a railroad marketing failure. Big time.
If the trucker was charging $2,400/load, and she says she was, to get a load of spices from Baltimore to Melrose Park, IL the railroad (NS or CSX) was easily competitive with a lower price.
The fact that this was moving over the road is a black mark on railroad marketing.
I can tell you this much any and all carriers that have a relationship with the railroads when it comes to IM shipping right now are using them for anything that can take the delay in shipping times due to trying to get the kinks worked out in the ELD mandate that hammered us. Shippers are screaming recievers are screaming drivers and carriers are going your the delay not on my end and the customers are all trying to figure out how to get the delay out of loading and unloading trailers. Those of us that have been screaming it for years that is wasn't the movement of freight that was the problem it was at the start and ending of loads where the delays happened. Now companies are seeing how their shipping and recieving departments are the cause of delays in getting goods in and out. We just had a truck delayed 20 hours at the Jewel Warehouse in Melrose Park with a load of spices. They demanded everything be broken down onto seperate pallets before they would accept it. They better like that 4800 dollar Detention time bill they are getting also. Which was double the freight rate for the load back from Baltimore.
WASHINGTON — The Association of American Railroads today reported U.S. rail traffic for the week ending Feb. 10. For this week, total U.S. weekly rail traffic was 519,545 carloads and intermodal units, up 1.6 percent compared with the same wee...
http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2018/02/14-aar-intermodal-gains-make-up-for-carload-declines-in-early-february
Brian Schmidt, Editor, Classic Trains magazine
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