Canadian Pacific invents a better mousetrap to smooth intermodal volume

[samfp1943]

From the TRAINSNewswire of Oct.8,2018: FTA:"...Like most railroads, CP saw a flood of intermodal traffic arrive at its terminals Wednesday through Friday, with much lower volumes the rest of the week. Day of the week pricing, which offered lower rates on slow days and higher rates on peak days, did little to smooth volume.

CP’s premier domestic intermodal train, Toronto-Vancouver hotshot 101, would swell to 12,000 feet on heavy-volume days, but shrink to 5,000 or 6,000 feet on low-volume days.

It’s the sort of thing that drives a Precision Scheduled Railroad nuts. The operating model strives to keep crews, locomotives, and cars in balance. And when you’ve got a long consist some days, and a short train on others, efficiency and capacity are lost..."

 I found this to be interesting and a littler bit different from what I had suspected(?)  Around here we see a high volume of Intermodals in both directions (East and West) as the BNSF's Southern T-con moves them via this area. The local Crew Base is ,primarily, Wellington,Ks. Some crew changes are in ElDorado and some go up northeastward towards Gardner and KC,Ks.  Seems like every other weekend traffic seems to be heavier, with some regularly timed trains thru the week days.   I had always thought that much of the traffic and volumn fluctuations were related to ship sailings at Los Angeles area(?). Not to mention availabilities of crews for trains at Wellington.

Sounds as if CPR has found a way to be able to schedule traffic and satisfy the shippers at the same time.

Further FTA:"...As a first step, CP went out and talked to its intermodal customers.

“We were surprised. Two-thirds of all the traffic we delivered in western Canada on any particular day didn’t need to be there that day. Didn’t need to be there the next day. Or the day after. We were hurrying up to wait,” Wahba said during CP’s Oct. 4 investor day.

So CP came up with a concept called the requested arrival date. The shipper would tell CP when its container needed to arrive, and CP would manage when the box moves to ensure on-time delivery.."

[BaltACD]

samfp1943

From the TRAINSNewswire of Oct.8,2018: FTA:"...Like most railroads, CP saw a flood of intermodal traffic arrive at its terminals Wednesday through Friday, with much lower volumes the rest of the week. Day of the week pricing, which offered lower rates on slow days and higher rates on peak days, did little to smooth volume. 

CP’s premier domestic intermodal train, Toronto-Vancouver hotshot 101, would swell to 12,000 feet on heavy-volume days, but shrink to 5,000 or 6,000 feet on low-volume days.

It’s the sort of thing that drives a Precision Scheduled Railroad nuts. The operating model strives to keep crews, locomotives, and cars in balance. And when you’ve got a long consist some days, and a short train on others, efficiency and capacity are lost..."

 I found this to be interesting and a littler bit different from what I had suspected(?)  Around here we see a high volume of Intermodals in both directions (East and West) as the BNSF's Southern T-con moves them via this area. The local Crew Base is ,primarily, Wellington,Ks. Some crew changes are in ElDorado and some go up northeastward towards Gardner and KC,Ks.  Seems like every other weekend traffic seems to be heavier, with some regularly timed trains thru the week days.   I had always thought that much of the traffic and volumn fluctuations were related to ship sailings at Los Angeles area(?). Not to mention availabilities of crews for trains at Wellington.

Sounds as if CPR has found a way to be able to schedule traffic and satisfy the shippers at the same time.

Further FTA:"...As a first step, CP went out and talked to its intermodal customers.

“We were surprised. Two-thirds of all the traffic we delivered in western Canada on any particular day didn’t need to be there that day. Didn’t need to be there the next day. Or the day after. We were hurrying up to wait,” Wahba said during CP’s Oct. 4 investor day.

So CP came up with a concept called the requested arrival date. The shipper would tell CP when its container needed to arrive, and CP would manage when the box moves to ensure on-time delivery.."

One thing I have observed from working in maritime areas.  The crews on vessels will do their damnest to be in port on Friday night, Saturday and Sunday.  There can always be a multitude of issues that will keep a vessel in port an extra day or two.

Vessel safety can never be taken for granted.  The Titanic was not the last vessel to sink.