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Hey LL, VERY interesting question. [?] I have a freind who helps compile that data. I'll have to ask him that. I'm guessing it will count as TOFC, but that's just a guess. I truly doesn't fit because of the "on-flat-car" definition of either. In terms of the volumes, there are really about 4 major market sections within intermodal. Within container, there is domestic and international. International moves in 20', 40' and 45' corrugated steel containers. A portion of freight that is imported on steamships gets transloaded "on-dock" from the ship right to a train (i.e. companies like K-Line, Evergreen, Maersk, Sealand) The double stacks run to a container yard somewhere inland from the dock and are then unloaded and delivered to the customers. If you think about the big steamships, Maersk has several boats that will haul 6,500 twenty foot equivalent containers. I've heard that there are also new super ships that will haul 8000 twenty foot equivalent. So, picture this.... 8000 twenties = 4000 forties. A full train can carry about 240 forty footers... so a single ship of 40 footers could load up about 17 trains. One problem with this is, what do you do with all these 40' boxes once you get to somewhere like Chicago? Ultimately you want to get them back to the boat. However, you don't want to pay the RR to haul 17 train-loads of empties back to the boat. Many shippers want a container with more cube space than a 40' box offers, but not all. If you have heavy product, you will hit max legal weight before you'd ever fill-up a 48' or 53' domestic container, so a 40' or 45' may work fine. For instance, customers that do canned goods (ie. veggies, beer, etc.) can use the smaller box because their product is heavy. Stuff like heavy metal stampings and even dog food is heavy enough to go into a 40' box. The steamship companies offer discounted rates if you can load their boxes back toward the docks. By the way, that is largely the only direction you can load them. You won't see 40' boxes just running around on the rail networks. They are basically running from the ship to a delivery point and back toward the ship (whether loaded or empty on the return leg.) There are import tax issues on the box itself that mandate how they can be used. The next big block is domestic containers (mostly 48' and 53' equipment.) This breaks down to free running equipment ( the North American Container System (NACS) which runs on BNSF, CSX, NS) the EMP Container program (UP, NS, CP), Pacer Stacktrain (UP, CSX), and then a number of private container fleets. These bigger boxes can be used much like their 48' and 53' trailer bretheren in terms of what product goes into them. The stacking frames that give the box the strength to withstand another load to sit on top of them intrude a few inches into the box which takes away a little cube space and interior dimension which makes them a little less desirable if you have a customer who is VERY cube space sensitive. Some customers have their cartons and pallet stacking designs set up to exactly match a high-cube trailer and won't load containers. ... but then again, many customers will. Typically container trains move a little slower (have lower max speeds on the RR due to weight-per-operative brake restrictions) and are often treated as a lower priority train. That means it might take a day longer than a TOFC shipment, but then again, you often see mixed TOFC, COFC trains, so your trailer might get there at the same time. Going from memory, it seems like the AAR number is about 211,000 containers shipped per week. This includes domestic and Intl boxes riding on the rail. As far as TOFC, the two big groups there are the LTL / Package guys (Roadway, Yellow, UPS) and then the truckload guys (Schneider National, others). The LTL and Package guys typically use 28' - 40' trailers. Some larger as well, but often smaller units. They often run on expedited trains due to high service requirements. They bring a lot of TOFC units to the rail. They've been pretty stable on unit count for a long while. The truckload guys are where the growth has been as of late. TTX (the car supplier) is actually buying new cars to handle trailers for the first time. The overall TOFC market has shrunk for a while as the RR's were trying to incent people to shift to containers. The way they "incented" this was by selling their rail-owned trailer fleets (ie. UP, BNSF, NS pretty much sold their entire fleet) and basically forcing you to take a container. Hower, the private fleet trailer owners who have 48' and 53' trailers are bringing a growing volume to the RR's and this segment is growing pretty nicely. The 53' boxes are the particularly big portion. The TOFC numbers that AAR has are smaller than the COFC, but don't count TOFC out. It meets the customers needs in a lot of instances and I think it will be around in the long term. Some RR's are absolutely bent on getting containerized and others with shorter length-of-haul aren't so big on that idea. Well, that's everything I know. Hope that helps clarify some stuff. [:D] - Stack.
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