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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by Lotus098 Dave, I don't understand either. How exactly are the US shippers captive, and the Chinese ones aren't? What exactly do you mean by a captive shipper, or this an open access problem? While Tom may not be correct on his thinking, his question seemed valid; without this knowledge how do we know who is a “captive” shipper. Could you enlighten us dummies to the answer of that question? [/quote] CURE defines rail captivity based on the STB's 180% RVC standard, wherein rates where the RVC is above 180% are considered captive. For a general definition, rail captivity occurs wherein a rail shipper (those whose product moves logically by rail, e.g. chemicals, mt of coal or grain, et al) has a physical connection (e.g. a spur or siding) to only one Class I, and/or where certain areas of the country have only one Class I available within a medium to short truck haul to the nearest railhead, e.g. a captive intermodal terminal. Your part of the Great State of Idaho is captive to UP both physically and geographically. If a grain shipper wants to move a thousand tons a month to Portland and doesn't like the rate being offered by UP, he has no other choice. Trucking that much grain would be too expensive. If one of those proposed coal fired power plants are actually built in Southern Idaho, they will be captive to UP and will end up paying a rate that is twice that of coal plants with competitive rail access. Overseas importers are for the most part immune to US rail captivity, because most of the major US seaside ports have more than one Class I to provide service. Furthermore, most US consumption markets are also in areas with access to two or more Class I's as well as barge and shortsea shipping. I'm not completely sure, but I think the only major US consumption market that is captive to one Class I is the Phoenix-Tuscon area, which is now captive to UP if it's true that BNSF no longer has a branch down to Phoenix. Okay, I guess you can count Boise if you want to call your area a major US consumption market, but I don't think the Boise-Caldwell corridor is considered a major US consumption market by most marketing professionals (otherwise you guys would have a professional sports team or two!) Therefore, it is basically impossible for overseas imports into the US to be subject to captive rates, while most captive rail customers are US producers, and all captive shippers in the world are located in North America. No where else in the world do you see the monopolistic tactics being exhibited by the US railroads, such as differential pricing, bottleneck gouging, paper barriers to shortlines, etc.
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