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Truckers using more rail intermodal
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[quote]QUOTE: <i>Originally posted by futuremodal</i> <br /><br />Why is it more expensive to ship a trailer by rail than by over the road? This doesn't fit the economic models. Trucks have higher labor per revenue/ton costs, higher ton/mile fuel use, they pay higher fuel costs per gallon than do the railroads. Hmmmm..... <br /> <br />Eventually, this situation is going to lead trucking lobbyists to call for higher GVW and length limits to improve the labor and fuel productivity. The railroads have a chance to head this off by pricing for future possibilities rather than the here and now, but....... <br />[/quote] <br /> <br />That wont happen. Try getting out of Hunts Point New York to the Throgs Neck Bridge with anything bigger than a single 53' In fact we used 45' ers and cab overs back in the day for getting into some of these places. <br /> <br />Higher gross weight? only in certain areas that can take it. Michigan B trains come to mind. Kentucky Coal is another. Rocky Mountain Doubles is a third item and let's not forget the turnpike doubles of NY and Mass. <br /> <br />I had a vision years ago when I was stuck in Chicago trying to hunt down one specific box with a 12 digit number in a land full of boxes stacked 6 high with trains coming and going and yard jockeys cursing and yelling as commerce groaned it's way thru chicago threating to gridlock the entire metro area with no hope of ever getting out this century. <br /> <br />I am motivated by the memory of my very first legal 53 foot trailer on a 245 Inch conventional tractor. This was back in early 90's. I pulled onto the scale house down by I-64 at the Richmond Va bypass. There was an old platform scale that refused to fit the entire unit on and traffic stacked up a mile behind me as the Va State police struggled to determine if my wheelbase was correct for the weights shown on the axles. I certainly was not the first truck at that chicken coop with the problem. <br /> <br />The solution was new scale facilities where they can weigh a truck in motion at 40 mph regardless of what combination of vehicle hits the gate. But inner city and very small towns will NOT accomodate larger and heavier vehicles. <br /> <br />I recall a small town in Indiana where the pavement is only several inches thick because it costs money to build a good strong road and I was told "dont stop on my road" by the local sherriff because 1- I would sink in 2- I really should not have been there with such a large vehicle but that is a different story.. <br /> <br />If you want bigger and heavyier vehicles be prepared to make huge changes in current driving habits of everyone on the road, infrastructure and modifications to everything along the routes. That will be more expensive than the extra cargo will be worth. <br /> <br />Solution? Relocate the plants to be closer to the end user or hire more trucks and drivers to carry the cargo, put the rest on the intracoastel waters or train. A mississippi River Barge can carry as much as 80 cars of a freight train without the traffic headaches of getting from New Orleans up to Memphis.
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