Revenue Ton Miles (and more)

[MP173]

Can anyone give a simple definition of Gross Ton Miles (GTM)?

Revenue Ton Miles (RTM)

My belief is that these measure the tons hauled * miles.  It is hard for me to wrap my mind around these numbers.  I am much more used to looking at revenue per carload...that makes much more sense to me.

Also, on CN

CN's recent (2Q) report:

Gross Ton Miles - 120,741 (millions)

Revenue Ton Miles - 60551 (Millions)

With this nearly 2/1 ratio it appears that GTM factors in the "empty" miles, yet the ratio should be less than 2/1 as the lading tonnage is stripped away on the empty movements.  Of course there could be efficiencies with cars being loaded for "return" movements.

Comments?  

Greyhound...with your vast knowledge of such matters, I am awaiting yours (and others) replies.

Ed

[PNWRMNM]

Gross ton miles is gross weight of train, engines and cars times number of miles. 

Revenue ton miles are the ton miles that the railroad gets paid to move.

Trivial example consider a 100 ton load of wheat in a 30 ton car. It generates 130 GTM per mile. Return trip will be another 30 GTM. Power will be 2-3 GTM per mile each way. Company material, rail ties and ballast will be something. That is at least 166 GTM per 100 revenue ton miles.

Mac

[Overmod]

GTM is the weight of the train(s) hauled (in my opinion, exclusive of locomotives, which have no difference between 'loaded' and 'revenue' status) -- overall, anywhere something was rolled on wheels in service on the relevant part of the general system of transportation.  Note that it involves equipment tare weight.  To my knowledge so does RTM.

RTM is the percentage of GTM that actually carried lading that was billed for.

Naturally some indication of backhaul, car utilization, etc. is reflected in the difference.  Where there is, or can be (e.g. for specialty car linings or dedicated round-trips with low latency) no effective revenue, RTM will fall, but the cars still have to be moved efficiently (which does NOT necessarily mean in minimum time or on the shortest route) to their next loading point.

I also look to the experts to tell me, historically, how the issue of tare was handled when LCL or some other service involved only a slight amount of revenue contribution. 

I would be wildly astounded if any railroad didn't know to within thousands of pounds PRECISELY what their gross and revenue ton mileage was shaping up to be.  Bills of lading alone would get you close.

I await the experts to tell me if dedicated car arrangements involve some sort of payment to get the 'empties' back timely.  If so there would be some percentage of 'revenue' and thence inclusion in a RTM metric -- if I were doing it that way, I'd use some sort of pro rata adjustment vs. actual loaded charge, but I'd also expect careful 'tax avoidance' style accounting to make the numbers come out to reflect management desires.

Note that this is different from a metric intended to measure track wear or capacity.  There you would include the weight, length, etc. of locomotives in the power consist(s).

[timz]

You seem to think it's complicated -- it isn't. 100 tons that rolls 100 miles is 10000 ton-miles, same as 10000 tons that rolls 1 mile.

But yeah, it's not clear what "revenue" tons are. If two 30-ton trailers are on a flatcar, is that 60 revenue tons, or are we supposed to subtract the weight of the trailers? If we are, are we supposed to do the same for containers?

Gross tons usually? always? includes the locomotives.

[MP173]

Thanks for quick replies.  

So, looking at CN's latest results for an example:

Petroleum/chemical revenue (2Q) - $829 (million)

Revnue Ton miles (Pet/Chem)       - 12,330 (million)

Freight revnue/RTM (cents)          -6.72

So...100 tons of chemicals handled 1 mile = $6.72 in revenue.  

Further in the report revenue/carload (pet/chem) - $5117.  
I can wrap my hands around $5117 per carload better than 6.72 per ton mile.  However, the revenue per carload does not provide average mileage hauled.  If these were 100 tons of oil, would the average miles be 761?  ($5117/6.72).   How does the return of the empty tank cars affect this?  

If there is a 100 car train of oil travelling 761 miles the revenue would be $511700.  Does that include the return of the empties?

I understand the math, just trying to understand the revenue aspect.

thanks for the help.

Ed

[BaltACD]

timz

You seem to think it's complicated -- it isn't. 100 tons that rolls 100 miles is 10000 ton-miles, same as 10000 tons that rolls 1 mile.

But yeah, it's not clear what "revenue" tons are. If two 30-ton trailers are on a flatcar, is that 60 revenue tons, or are we supposed to subtract the weight of the trailers? If we are, are we supposed to do the same for containers?

Gross tons usually? always? includes the locomotives.

When you start getting into REVENUE ton miles with intermodal you are getting into whole rats nest of rulings, especially since most intermodal is not hauled on the basis of weight.  Most intermodal is handled on a per box/trailer basis.  Many empty boxes are moving in railroad revenue service as the owner of the boxes are relocating them as necessary for the operation of the box owners system.

That I am aware of, the railroads have no certified system in place to ascertain the weight of boxes/trailers for revenue purposes.  The other thing to remember, for the most part, railroads are not the carrier of record for the contents of the boxes/trailers - the numerous 3rd Party Logistics outfits as well as the ocean carriers fit into that category.  Railroads do have some hand in the traffic that is handled in intermodal servcie, but it is as a minority participant for revenue service.

Locomotives are normally not counted in tonnage calculations unless they are moving on a revenue waybill for whatever the reason.  When moving on a revenue waybill they will enter into both categories of ton miles.

[MP173]

This next question, no doubt is based on the agreement with the trucking companies.

Would an empty movement of a container (owned by a trucking company) be considered a revenue load?  Example...CN revenue per intermodal unit was $1997 (btw up from $1501 a year ago).  Lets say they received a loaded container in Vancouver and transported to Memphis for $1997.  Empty returning back....still @ $1997 or perhaps a reduced rate, or even a no charge?

I cannot image returning at no charge, but a reduced rate might apply.

Believe I heard once that JBH has agreement with BNSF and perhaps others than they share the revenue, rather than a unit cost.  Am I imagining that or is that accurate?
Ed

[tree68]

As an aside, gross ton miles figures in elsewhere on the balance sheet - under MOW, even if it's not listed as such.

I'm pretty sure that the railroads plan maintenance, especially rail and tie replacement, based on the GTM number. 

[PNWRMNM]

MP173

Does that include the return of the empties?

Except for intermodal, the answer is usually yes in normal service.

[ns145]

timz

You seem to think it's complicated -- it isn't. 100 tons that rolls 100 miles is 10000 ton-miles, same as 10000 tons that rolls 1 mile.

But yeah, it's not clear what "revenue" tons are. If two 30-ton trailers are on a flatcar, is that 60 revenue tons, or are we supposed to subtract the weight of the trailers? If we are, are we supposed to do the same for containers?

Gross tons usually? always? includes the locomotives.

 

Gross ton-mile stats include road locomotives in the R-1 reports that the Class I's submit to the Surface Transportation Board.  It is located in Schedule 755, line 98.  It is not an insignificant number.  For example, BNSF's road locomotives in 2020 accounted for 99.3 billion GTM's.  That's approximately 8.6% of the system total of 1.148 trillion GTM's.

[BaltACD]

ns145

 

timz

You seem to think it's complicated -- it isn't. 100 tons that rolls 100 miles is 10000 ton-miles, same as 10000 tons that rolls 1 mile.

But yeah, it's not clear what "revenue" tons are. If two 30-ton trailers are on a flatcar, is that 60 revenue tons, or are we supposed to subtract the weight of the trailers? If we are, are we supposed to do the same for containers?

Gross tons usually? always? includes the locomotives. 

Gross ton-mile stats include road locomotives in the R-1 reports that the Class I's submit to the Surface Transportation Board.  It is located in Schedule 755, line 98.  It is not an insignificant number.  For example, BNSF's road locomotives in 2020 accounted for 99.3 billion GTM's.  That's approximately 8.6% of the system total of 1.148 trillion GTM's.

Those numbers make it sound like NS is very inefficient in their locomotive utilization.  A acceptable number should be on the order of 2 or 3 percent.

[timz]

BaltACD

A acceptable number should be on the order of 2 or 3 percent.

To be acceptable, the RR's average train should be 8000 tons per 200-ton unit?

[blue streak 1]

if remembering is correct what I read many years ago that MOW for any section of track was based on gross tons on that section.  If true every where some traffic goes on another direction the next section's gross tons may be different.  It may be for efficiency that RRs will take the highest number for a longer distance rehab of several sections.  Then again engineering has to take in any adverse conditions such as curves , soils , etc. for any section(s).

Now Revenue ton miles.  Most cars do not get weighed when loaded now with just spot checks.  Bills of lading might determined such as grain, iron ore, paper roducts, any metals etc that are standard loads.  Now what is RTMs?.  Does it just include the average load of each type of car.  Or does it include the gross weight of the car? 

Then we have the example noted below of intermodal loads. You have tare weight of the cars and is that included in RTMs.  Imagine that an average load inside a container or trailer is about 36k-40k.   Did someone here mention that he wanted a fudge factor when near gross tons for locos as sometimes they were higher than manifest showed and his train might otherwise stall on ruling grade.