rdamon Imagine this as a driverless vehicle.
MP173 PST coming soon. Precision Scheduled Trucking with tractors hauling triples (or more). Seriously...not sure how this fits in with the rail portfolio. Traditionally trucking margins are much tighter than the rails...with lots of assets on the books. Is this a sign that the cut to the bone PSR is over and railroads are looking for topline revenue growth?Ed
PST coming soon. Precision Scheduled Trucking with tractors hauling triples (or more).
Seriously...not sure how this fits in with the rail portfolio. Traditionally trucking margins are much tighter than the rails...with lots of assets on the books.
Is this a sign that the cut to the bone PSR is over and railroads are looking for topline revenue growth?Ed
The other day I got my Teamster (Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen are affliated with them) magazine. A small article caught my eye.
Employees at ABF Freight received a bonus of 1 percent of their annual pay because ABF made it's financial goal for the year. Their current contract calls for the bonus to be paid if the company's OR is less than 96 percent. ABF's OR for the last year was 95.3%, so the bonus was paid.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch er, yard office. UP is still trying to get down to 55%. Grasping for anything to cut, when there's very little place to do so anymore.
Jeff
Imagine this as a driverless vehicle.
MP173PST coming soon. Precision Scheduled Trucking with tractors hauling triples (or more). Seriously...not sure how this fits in with the rail portfolio. Traditionally trucking margins are much tighter than the rails...with lots of assets on the books. Is this a sign that the cut to the bone PSR is over and railroads are looking for topline revenue growth?Ed
Treked from Maryland to Kansas - saw many FedEx Triples
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
mudchicken Either the corporate law and risk management people were asleep -or- there are alarm bells still going off after they were bypassed.
Either the corporate law and risk management people were asleep -or- there are alarm bells still going off after they were bypassed.
Time DC folded well before 1997. Doing some googling, it looks like it was 1988. Many of the old time union LTL carriers folded in the 70-80s.
North American Van Lines was purchased by NS and much of its management provided their trucking expertise when Triple Crown Services was established.
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ED; Recall, that a number of years back; [into the 1960's]. THE RAILROADS WERE in the TRUCKING BUSNESS! A number of railroads owned their own trucking operations, in conjunction, with their LTL Freight Operations. [or maybe, BECAUSE, of those operations*(?)
The 'watershed' seemed to be around the nationwide U.P.S. strike of 1997, generally, known as "The Big Brownout": The UPS purchase of Overnite Transportation came in the wake of that strike. {Overnite Trans had been 'big in the area of the Central area[Virginia,and the Carolina's] of the East Coast, and had started to expand out nationally,when the Strike of'97 happened. Another national carrier that collapsed in the same time frame was TIME-DC, and it folded. }
And just to 'cap' that 'other than rail ' operations era; was BN iowned, and operated its own cargo airline, based out of Ft,.Wayne,In . Burlington Northern Air Freight. and do not forget, that Santa Fe owned a large BUS operation, known as Santa Fe Trailways(?).
SD60MAC9500 Backshop Don't forget, UP owned Overnite and it didn't work out. They sold it to UPS, who just recently resold it to a Canadian corporation. UP couldn't fit the LTL operation into its portfolio nor could UPS... Overnite has a reputation for being an expensive asset.. Then again judging by YRC performance the LTL market could use some "adjustment"..
Backshop Don't forget, UP owned Overnite and it didn't work out. They sold it to UPS, who just recently resold it to a Canadian corporation.
Don't forget, UP owned Overnite and it didn't work out. They sold it to UPS, who just recently resold it to a Canadian corporation.
UP couldn't fit the LTL operation into its portfolio nor could UPS... Overnite has a reputation for being an expensive asset.. Then again judging by YRC performance the LTL market could use some "adjustment"..
They should leave the management team in place...otherwise I agree.
Ed
If railroads have a weakness in marketing service, how are they going to compete in the trucking business?
That was long ago and in a different era. It was a poor fit for a number of reasons that had nothing to do with the underlying premise that a combination like this might be beneficial. Now we have Amazon, home delivery is rapidly superseding the shopping mall.. likely the mall as we've come to know it will be a thing of the past within a generation. Railroads today have a wonderful opportunity to get in on this action by broadening their services. There's limited opportunity in merging railroads now as any mergers would entail significant concessions to competitors.. better opportunities lie in combining with other carriers and modes. Opportunites abound..
A good move, and what I've been saying all along.. railroads should look at buying trucking carriers to round out their services and gain access to other markets...i.e. become transportation companies instead of railroads. What's next? Maybe the purchase of a large LTL carrier (Old Dominion or Fedex maybe). with the growing importance on home/last mile delivery that might be a good idea. Imagine if CSX could go to a company like Amazon and offer a one stop solution that includes delivery right to the end consumer's door!
Murphy Siding This could only mean one thing- the end of trucking. The trucking industry must now obviously throw in the towel to the railroads.
A CSX Quality truck!
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.
This could only mean one thing- the end of trucking. The trucking industry must now obviously throw in the towel to the railroads. - My 13,000th post!
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
This is a great move on CSX's part. It gives them access to new customers who aren't connected to a spur. Maybe we'll get double stack domestic tanktainer service out of this.
https://www.exsif.com/products_intermodal_407.htm
CSX is acquiring chemical hauler Quality Carriers.
https://www.progressiverailroading.com/csx_transportation/news/CSX-to-acquire-Quality-Carriers--63458
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