passengerfan wrote: Many years ago I was in the trucking industry as an owner operator and after loading my trailer using a rental tractor while waiting for mine undergoing a major overhaul in eastern Canada for a trip to Vancouver I received the bad news that my tractor was not going to be ready in time for the trip. I contacted the railroad about transporting my trailer to Vancouver and within hours after loading it was on its way west. I used the same railroads airline five days later to fly out rent a truck and unload my trailer. I reloaded using the rental tractor back to Toronto and once again flew home to Toronto and waited for my trailer. By that time my tractor was waiting for me and I unloaded when it returned to Toronto. If the company I had worked for had spotted that trailer on the railcar I would have been terminated. There were no damages to any of the shipments and inspite of all of the expenses incurred I made more money on that trip than I would have had I driven all the way. And I got to spend more time with my family and that time was priceless. That was when I decided it was time for me to look at something else for a living. Oh and I might mention that the trailer arrived at both destinations still clean. If I had driven it I would have had to wash the rig at both ends another expense I did not have to incur.Al - in - Stockton
Many years ago I was in the trucking industry as an owner operator and after loading my trailer using a rental tractor while waiting for mine undergoing a major overhaul in eastern Canada for a trip to Vancouver I received the bad news that my tractor was not going to be ready in time for the trip. I contacted the railroad about transporting my trailer to Vancouver and within hours after loading it was on its way west. I used the same railroads airline five days later to fly out rent a truck and unload my trailer. I reloaded using the rental tractor back to Toronto and once again flew home to Toronto and waited for my trailer. By that time my tractor was waiting for me and I unloaded when it returned to Toronto. If the company I had worked for had spotted that trailer on the railcar I would have been terminated. There were no damages to any of the shipments and inspite of all of the expenses incurred I made more money on that trip than I would have had I driven all the way. And I got to spend more time with my family and that time was priceless. That was when I decided it was time for me to look at something else for a living. Oh and I might mention that the trailer arrived at both destinations still clean. If I had driven it I would have had to wash the rig at both ends another expense I did not have to incur.
Al - in - Stockton
Well, good. Now think about how much money you would have made as an o/o if you would have brought two trailers to the railhead in Toronto. Then grabbed a third load and driven it west. You deliver your over the road load, then go get the TOFC loads and deliver them. Then load two on the rail east and drive one back. Repeat the delivery process for the three trailers in Toronto.
You'd save the air fare and get paid for three loads while driving one.
Marx Truck Line out of Sioux City, Iowa used to do that on the ICG. They were bringing grain in to the Port of Chicago. They'd load two open tops of grain on a flatcar in Sioux City and the railroad would move them to Chicago. Then the driver would drive a load to Chicago, make the deliveries, grab any available reloads, and repeat the process back to Sioux City. It worked fine.
How could the railroads market this to owner operators who are going broke paying $4.70/gallon for diesel?
JB Hunt has rail access.
He puts a bunch of trailers on a train for a single charge.
Saves having to herd 400 drivers, tractors, paperwork, logs, comchecks etc etc etc.
What's not to like?
Oh yes, 30 regionals assigned to this spot to gather up the loads when the choo choo arrived.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
jgiblin wrote:As one who has worked in both the trucking and rail industries, I'm always amused when a group of rail folks start predicting the demise of the trucking industry. To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the trucking industry's demise are greatly exaggerated. Several commenters have correctly surmised that railroads really are "doomed by complexity", to quote from my March 2007 TRAINS feature. We will be exploring the train vs. truck phenomenon, specifically as it relates to perishables, in another feature in the September 2008 issue. Truckers simply have too many inherent advantages over railroads. Railroads will be important niche players but the mass market remains with the truckers.
Well, Jim, I don't think anyone predicted the demise of the trucking industry.
And I disagree that railroads are "doomed" by complexity. They're hampered and disadvantaged by complexity - but not "doomed".
There are advantaqes and disadvantages when shipping by rail. One advantage is the lower rail linehaul cost once you get past all the collecting, aggregating, sorting, and distributing you have to do to use rail. It's the relationship of that line haul rail cost. to the other steps and to trucking costs that determines when and where rail transport is viable vis a vis trucking.
Over time the cost relationships change. That means the niches change. A market niche that was closed to rail when diesel truck fuel was $1.25/gallon can become very open to rail when truck fuel is $4.70/gallon. It's important for the railroads to understand such changes and exploit the new niches when they open up.
It will be interesting to see what you have to say regarding perishables. It's important to remember that there are niches within the niche when it comes to perishables. Commodities such as potatoes, apples, onions, carrots, etc. are "Less Perishable" and can easily take a somewhat longer, somewhat less reliable rail vs truck transit to save money. Commodities such as strawberries are "More Perishable" and are going to stay on the Interstate System (or in a plane's cargo hold) because they require very rapid transit.
I'm certain that there has been a "Niche Shift" with regards to many perishable products caused by the rapid run up (which appears permanent) of fuel cost. A BNSF premium intermodal train making 750 miles/day is service competitive for much of the perishable market and the cost shift has given it an advantage for certain perishable products.
That railroad is also sitting on a "Beef Mine" out in SW Kansas and the Texas panhandle. That area produces 42% of the "fed beef" (not old dairy cows) in the US. That beef can move by rail - if the savings by rail are good enough to offset the slighly lower quality of rail transport. Those savings just got a lot bigger. The "Beef Niche" just opened up. Hopefully, the railroad will take advantage of that.
The thought of dozens of railcars being washed, sanitized and reloaded in days at the Meat Plants out there in Meat Country is a thought that worries me.
What people dont understand is that when you bring in a empty reefer into a meat plant to be loaded, you are given a place to wait, your trailer sent to be washed (While you arrange payment) and then sent to be loaded.
That loading will take 2,3 or 4 days. That includes night and day. You sit. If you were a husband/wife team you arranged a regional run to zip around the area running other trailers to make money or rescue singles who are late with thier deliveries while the one meat load is loading. With a 1000 mile range every 24 hours, teams can break the clock and make it happen.
If a railroad sent all these cars to be loaded that slowly, it would not work well. Sure, it can be done, just add some track and rail docks and man it with migrants or other maginal populations willing to work in those kind of places.
Trucking's demise is something that will never happen. A thought of the USA without trucking is also a vision of a Nation in arnachy and martial law.
greyhounds wrote: passengerfan wrote: Many years ago I was in the trucking industry as an owner operator and after loading my trailer using a rental tractor while waiting for mine undergoing a major overhaul in eastern Canada for a trip to Vancouver I received the bad news that my tractor was not going to be ready in time for the trip. I contacted the railroad about transporting my trailer to Vancouver and within hours after loading it was on its way west. I used the same railroads airline five days later to fly out rent a truck and unload my trailer. I reloaded using the rental tractor back to Toronto and once again flew home to Toronto and waited for my trailer. By that time my tractor was waiting for me and I unloaded when it returned to Toronto. If the company I had worked for had spotted that trailer on the railcar I would have been terminated. There were no damages to any of the shipments and inspite of all of the expenses incurred I made more money on that trip than I would have had I driven all the way. And I got to spend more time with my family and that time was priceless. That was when I decided it was time for me to look at something else for a living. Oh and I might mention that the trailer arrived at both destinations still clean. If I had driven it I would have had to wash the rig at both ends another expense I did not have to incur.Al - in - Stockton Well, good. Now think about how much money you would have made as an o/o if you would have brought two trailers to the railhead in Toronto. Then grabbed a third load and driven it west. You deliver your over the road load, then go get the TOFC loads and deliver them. Then load two on the rail east and drive one back. Repeat the delivery process for the three trailers in Toronto.You'd save the air fare and get paid for three loads while driving one.Marx Truck Line out of Sioux City, Iowa used to do that on the ICG. They were bringing grain in to the Port of Chicago. They'd load two open tops of grain on a flatcar in Sioux City and the railroad would move them to Chicago. Then the driver would drive a load to Chicago, make the deliveries, grab any available reloads, and repeat the process back to Sioux City. It worked fine.How could the railroads market this to owner operators who are going broke paying $4.70/gallon for diesel?
Interesting you should mention that as I remember seeing from time to time grain trailers moving as TOFC on ICG's "CC1" train through Manchester back in the late 70's or early-mid 80's. It's about the only right thing ICG did in its otherwise drive all business off on the Iowa Division-plan before Jack Haley bought the Iowa Division in '85.
Last Chance wrote: The thought of dozens of railcars being washed, sanitized and reloaded in days at the Meat Plants out there in Meat Country is a thought that worries me.What people dont understand is that when you bring in a empty reefer into a meat plant to be loaded, you are given a place to wait, your trailer sent to be washed (While you arrange payment) and then sent to be loaded.That loading will take 2,3 or 4 days. That includes night and day. You sit. If you were a husband/wife team you arranged a regional run to zip around the area running other trailers to make money or rescue singles who are late with thier deliveries while the one meat load is loading. With a 1000 mile range every 24 hours, teams can break the clock and make it happen.If a railroad sent all these cars to be loaded that slowly, it would not work well. Sure, it can be done, just add some track and rail docks and man it with migrants or other maginal populations willing to work in those kind of places.Trucking's demise is something that will never happen. A thought of the USA without trucking is also a vision of a Nation in arnachy and martial law.
I don't think we'll see large volumes of domestic meat moving in refrigerated railcars. It'll go intermodal.
The situation described by Last Chance favors intermodal over trucking because the intermodal carrier doesn't have to leave drivers with the trailers/containers. Just establish a pool at the slaughterhouse. When a load is ready just get a local drayman to grab it and bring it to the ramp.
greyhounds wrote:I don't think we'll see large volumes of domestic meat moving in refrigerated railcars. It'll go intermodal.
I agree that is more likely.
RWM
Los Angeles Rams Guy wrote: Interesting you should mention that as I remember seeing from time to time grain trailers moving as TOFC on ICG's "CC1" train through Manchester back in the late 70's or early-mid 80's. It's about the only right thing ICG did in its otherwise drive all business off on the Iowa Division-plan before Jack Haley bought the Iowa Division in '85.
Harsh dude, very harsh.
We tried. That was, and still is I hope, a well maintained rail line.
I was riding the 2nd engine on CC-6 one night east from Waterloo. We had an old engineer who had about six more runs before retirement. We left Waterloo and he took that train up to 69 MPH, then we'd drop back to 67, then back up to 69. He ran like that almost to Dubuque where he had to slow down to get down the hill to the river and cross the bridge.
Quite the ride though an Iowa night.
To market the line we did things like establish twice daily service between Chicago and the UP at Council Bluffs. The trains made decent time.
Eastbound freight was comming into Markham yard. Markham had two humps, a northbound hump and a southbound hump. The northbound hump classified cars for eastern connections. All freight in from Iowa was going to the southbound hump. This meant it had to be rehumped to go on east. We got Council Bluffs to make two Markham blocks, one for each hump. By bypassing the southbound hump for traffic moving east we saved a day or so on transit via the ICG.
We did what we could.
A good part of the line's traffic base was 1) UP interchange and 2) packing house products. The UP got in bed with the C&NW so that hurt. The meat went to trucks largely due to stupid Federal economic regulations and union work rules that required 16-20 crewmembers to move a train 500 miles. Those things were out of our control.
The UP traffic is gone forever. But if you were to take a map and draw a line from Waterloo, IA to Sioux Falls, SD, then to Freemont, NE, then to Marshalltown, IA, then back to Waterloo, you would have drawn a line around about 1/3 of the pork production in the US. There are also five significant beef plants in roughly the same area. Each of these beef plants kills 3,500-6,000 cattle per day.
The meat is shipped long distances by truck to populaiton centers on the coasts. The railroad can now get back a good portion of that meat business.
I dont have issues with Intermodal Ship Boxes. I started off with those and some had thier own chassis with reefers under. Used to run Crab out of the Chesapeake to the seaport.
Ok, I agree, Intermodal with drayage will work very well for the meat plants. It will free up the "Big" reefers like the 48's and 53's for more productive work in same time frame elsewhere.
It would be so easy to throw down some ramps in the west, lay track somewhere close the the plant and make it happen. The drivers waiting for thier own loads could run dray rates to and from plant to railhead for a few per day while waiting and make a dollar to boot.
Last Chance wrote: I dont have issues with Intermodal Ship Boxes. I started off with those and some had thier own chassis with reefers under. Used to run Crab out of the Chesapeake to the seaport.Ok, I agree, Intermodal with drayage will work very well for the meat plants. It will free up the "Big" reefers like the 48's and 53's for more productive work in same time frame elsewhere.It would be so easy to throw down some ramps in the west, lay track somewhere close the the plant and make it happen. The drivers waiting for thier own loads could run dray rates to and from plant to railhead for a few per day while waiting and make a dollar to boot.
No, I think the meat will move in 53' reefer containers. We're not going to run empty all the way back and 53' will be needed for the backhaul.
Neither will any track need to be put down. All we need is an unused yard or side track near the packing house. The packing houses are already rail served to handle by products. We don't even need ramps. Use of bimodal chassis will preclude that.
This is a hanging curveball and the railroads have a big bat.
greyhounds wrote: Los Angeles Rams Guy wrote: Interesting you should mention that as I remember seeing from time to time grain trailers moving as TOFC on ICG's "CC1" train through Manchester back in the late 70's or early-mid 80's. It's about the only right thing ICG did in its otherwise drive all business off on the Iowa Division-plan before Jack Haley bought the Iowa Division in '85. Harsh dude, very harsh.We tried. That was, and still is I hope, a well maintained rail line.I was riding the 2nd engine on CC-6 one night east from Waterloo. We had an old engineer who had about six more runs before retirement. We left Waterloo and he took that train up to 69 MPH, then we'd drop back to 67, then back up to 69. He ran like that almost to Dubuque where he had to slow down to get down the hill to the river and cross the bridge.Quite the ride though an Iowa night.To market the line we did things like establish twice daily service between Chicago and the UP at Council Bluffs. The trains made decent time. Eastbound freight was comming into Markham yard. Markham had two humps, a northbound hump and a southbound hump. The northbound hump classified cars for eastern connections. All freight in from Iowa was going to the southbound hump. This meant it had to be rehumped to go on east. We got Council Bluffs to make two Markham blocks, one for each hump. By bypassing the southbound hump for traffic moving east we saved a day or so on transit via the ICG.We did what we could. A good part of the line's traffic base was 1) UP interchange and 2) packing house products. The UP got in bed with the C&NW so that hurt. The meat went to trucks largely due to stupid Federal economic regulations and union work rules that required 16-20 crewmembers to move a train 500 miles. Those things were out of our control.The UP traffic is gone forever. But if you were to take a map and draw a line from Waterloo, IA to Sioux Falls, SD, then to Freemont, NE, then to Marshalltown, IA, then back to Waterloo, you would have drawn a line around about 1/3 of the pork production in the US. There are also five significant beef plants in roughly the same area. Each of these beef plants kills 3,500-6,000 cattle per day. The meat is shipped long distances by truck to populaiton centers on the coasts. The railroad can now get back a good portion of that meat business.
Didn't mean to sound harsh. It's just that as a railfan living close to the ICG back in the late 70's and early 80's it was incredibly frustrating to see a once-proud railroad going to hell. I can remember (as a little kid anyway) watching the "Hawkeye" passenger train and the meat trains coming through Manchester from my Aunt and Uncle's house. I also knew quite a few IC/ICG employees as I got a little older and remember vividly the stories they used to tell me of how the meat trains were the hottest thing on the Iowa Division. At one time, in fact, the IC/ICG mainline across Iowa was coined "the Mainline Of Meat". One time when I went to Waterloo to fill out an application with the ICG, one ICG employee dejectedly told me, "There's more meat in your refrigerator than what we carry now."
But I'd also like to think that your prognostications about possibly recapturing some of that traffic could come true. And no doubt with the flexibility of intermodal that would be the ideal way to go to recapture some of that traffic. Hopefully the CN will be aggressive enough and go after this. If the potential is there, I think they would.
True, there is some mixes of traffic out there that are more suited for truckers that would be difficult, at best, for the railroads to try and make inroads on. But there is also traffic out there that the railroads can get if they market there services and DELIVER on them.
Greyhound:I really enjoyed your commentary on the Iowa Division. Thanks for the description. How much of the traffic on that line was off the UP? 50%?
You mentioned coming down the hill at Dubuque. That city is really a fascinating railroad route. Probably not very efficient, but from a fan standpoint, it sure is neat. As a side note, back in 1993 I was in Dubuque on business and was amazed to see the water level creeping higher by the minute at the US61 overpass south of the city. By the next morning the water level was over the rails.
What kind of grade was that going west out of Dubuque? Was it much of a challenge (as in trains stalling)? The tunnel and crossing at East Dubuque had a very unique feel.
ed
At sometime in the 1960's, the IC did have a TOFC service for beef from Iowa to Chicago. If I recall correctly, hanging beef was shipped in this service. The service had been started to try to keep some of the business that had moved in reefer cars. Near the end of the decade, the IC did an in depth study of the costs for the movement and and for many reasons concluded it was not in the economic interest to continue to offer the service. Increasing the charges on the service was not an option because the truck competition was effectively setting the ceiling for the charges.
I don't have any way of finding or evaluating the numbers that might be in play today, but I agree that the return of some of this business to the rails might be possible. When the IC was providing the TOFC service, they owned the reefer trailers fully equipped with the interior equipment-rails and hooks-, did the cartage and all the other services necessary to handle the business. Just a guess, but I think that if there is a shift back to rail movement, it will follow the JB Hunt business model where the trucking companies will be the primary carrier bringing the loads to the railroads for the line haul movement.
"We have met the enemy and he is us." Pogo Possum "We have met the anemone... and he is Russ." Bucky Katt "Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future." Niels Bohr, Nobel laureate in physics
As improved structural materials make it possible for RoadRailer-type trailers to carry heavier loads, with the increasingly high price of diesel fuel (until diesel fuel made from biomass becomes widely available) I can see new, insulated RoadRailers being assigned to more and more perishable foodstuff transport service.
Imagine several years from now a new shipping terminal in Watsonville, CA that will aggregate insulated RoadRailer trailers loaded with fruits and vegetables from the Salinas Valley area into 100-trailer trains pulled by two SD70ACe's or two ES44AC's for shipment to destinations 800 or more miles away.
I see a couple of challenges for the movement of meat. Not saying it cant be done, but challenges which will need to be addressed.
First, it appears the concentration of the meat packing is in two locations...Iowa and Kansas. Do either of these locations have the infrastructure in place to establish a hub and spoke type operation for the intermodal movement of the meat? In other words, at some location, loads would have to be consolidated in order to build trains. Isnt Schneider running a daily train from Kansas City to Marion Oh of intermodal loads?
Kansas might be a good location for something like this to occur. It is right smack in the middle of the country. Rail lines to the west coast, Chicago, the Southeast via the old Frisco line, south to DFW and Houston, to the Northwest via BNSF or UP. What kind of intermodal staging area would be required and where would be a good location?
Would Iowa be as good a location for rail as Kansas? Possibly for the west coast and maybe the east coast if they could get thru Chicago.
Another challenge that I see would be the return of refrigerated equipment to Kansas and Iowa. I am not sure how much refer business is inbound to those locations, or actually even dry freight which could move. Deadhead issues would be a factor in pricing.
Interesting discussion.
Let's see.
Liberal Kansas, Fort Morgan Colorado, Garden City Kansas, Dumas Texas, Omaha NE, Waterloo and a whole bunch of others between the Divide and the Cumberland in Tenn. Mostly beef. But in the Ozarks the game becomes that of Chicken with similar problems, East Coast hams, Pork, bacon etc. and so on.
Part of the problem with Meat Loads is that they get priority but not as important as raw milk inbound to a store distribution. They want that meat NOW. Like yesterday. There is absolutely no tolerance for delay anywhere in the game. Read what I have posted in the past about days of lost time waiting for one to be loaded and ponder on that.
I once set a record from Garden City south to I40 (At the time I70 was under Chain Law and blizzards) and then to Bakersfield to Salinas. I think it was 2450 miles on the ground straight through without stopping. After a nap at (Nap = 14 hours) Bakersfield, I was shoo'ed in direct to the first dock past hundreds of waiting trucks full of thier loads at the big food place there in Salinas. The fragging I recieved on the radio was not worth it. Never again.
MP173 wrote: I see a couple of challenges for the movement of meat. Not saying it cant be done, but challenges which will need to be addressed.First, it appears the concentration of the meat packing is in two locations...Iowa and Kansas. Do either of these locations have the infrastructure in place to establish a hub and spoke type operation for the intermodal movement of the meat? In other words, at some location, loads would have to be consolidated in order to build trains. Isnt Schneider running a daily train from Kansas City to Marion Oh of intermodal loads? Kansas might be a good location for something like this to occur. It is right smack in the middle of the country. Rail lines to the west coast, Chicago, the Southeast via the old Frisco line, south to DFW and Houston, to the Northwest via BNSF or UP. What kind of intermodal staging area would be required and where would be a good location?Would Iowa be as good a location for rail as Kansas? Possibly for the west coast and maybe the east coast if they could get thru Chicago. Another challenge that I see would be the return of refrigerated equipment to Kansas and Iowa. I am not sure how much refer business is inbound to those locations, or actually even dry freight which could move. Deadhead issues would be a factor in pricing.Interesting discussion.ed
The SW Kansas concentration extends into the Texas Panhandle centered around Amarillo. Altogether, the Kansas/Texas concentration produces 42% of the "fed beef" in the US. (excludes old dairy cows that are no longer efficient milk producers)
Let's deal with the Iowa pork. Nothing would kill this concept faster than trying to establish one "HUB" to handle the pork. This market is served by an underutilized rail line, the CN's Iowa route. It makes no sense to pay exhorbatant trucking fees to gather the pork shipments when production is concentrated in a few plants.
Establish low cost intermodal transfers near plants. Use bimodal technology (I favor RailMate) for easy, low cost transfer from road to rail. Start two trains east from Council Bluffs and Sioux City. (you'll have to truck in from Sioux Falls, Freemont, etc.) Pick up at Denison (pork and beef) and at Storm Lake (pork). Combine the trains at Ft. Dodge. Pick up at Waterloo (dray in from Marshalltown) and run to Chicago. Transfer the containers to existing intermodal service on NS and CSX. And while you're doing this, grab any Omaha outbound dry freight that's good, even if its a load of rope.
You couldn't do this on a high density line, but that's not this niche.
Same same on the SW Kansas plants. The BNSF has extra capacity on the line through Garden City and Dodge City. Feed into Kansas City with that one.
Amarillo is on a high density line, so you'd have to hub out of Amarillo.
You've hit the nail squarely with the backhaul problem. As in any transportation, there are going to be some empty, non-revenue, miles. Whoever does this is going to just have to make up their minds to "own" the East of Chicago to Omaha/Sioux City business.
But the truckers are charging $2.45/mile from west Iowa to the Northeast and at that rate the rails can stand some level of empty return.
Assuming 6 miles to gallon and 5 dollar desiel approx 84 cents out of that two dollar something per mile goes into just moving the stuff. Then the driver pay which I think is about 50 cents roughly for a company man makes it at least 1.30 a mile just to move the beef; never mind anything else.
I think Rail beats truck because it can move alot of tons on that same fuel. The problem is TIME.... gotta break that clock and do it faster than a team can.
They can probably establish regional locals at the plant/rail head and do it again on the other end near the Northeast and Southern Cities.
No matter how bad the fuel gets that beef needs to be moved. The USA is about a few weeks or less from not being able to eat well.
One thing about this is grocery companys want the very best service at a WalMart price. The railroads like BNSF seem to want to be paid right for good service but truckers and I,v done it will run a load as fast and hard as they can for the lowest dollar they can get.
...The strong are sometimes those who run 6 days on a bag of chips and a few pints of water in a exercise of endurance until the billing gets finished and the payroll sent. Trains have advantage of putting a fresh engine, crew when the previous one goes dead on the law.
It is a very fast, fluid and mobile business. A few words over the satellite from dispatcher makes it all happen within a few minutes. I remember in the later years Ive put together a trip empty to load and then to delivery from A to B (OR multi stop LCL) within a few minutes and go and was on time more or less taking traffic into consideration.
I depended on 10 PM to 6 AM to put the miles away between any city end to end. Traffic is a liability. Once in a while Convoys of several dozen to one hundred or more just stomps the freeway flat and clears the logjams of the cars.
And you wonder why the cars are so stressed around the trucks.
Rail is sometimes too muscle bound and not very agile to make a move in my humble opinion. If I was a warehouse boss who wants this stuff sent to some market in NYC right now, I will have a big truck at the dock with one simple phone call.
Trains are going to have to find a way to strip out anything that delays them and be able to show up when that dockman gets up and calls for somebody to get this load out of the door.
Unfortunately, we have no way to slow the Country down because now, everything is JIT with no warehouse involved or excessive delays.
That ship arrives crossing the Pacific taking a month to the west coast. Everyone is patient. But once that box hits USA Dirt or pavement all want it NOW.
Interesting comment about USA being a few weeks from hunger.
Interesting article friday in WSJ about hog farmers and the squeeze they are in over higher corn prices and lack of compensation. Look for hog production to diminish as margins are non existant was the message.
Now, with corn production seemingly dropping due to the flooding in the heartland, it might be a very intersting year.
That Sir, is called LCL. (Or was it LTL? -Senior Moment.. sorry)
There is already many established LCL Houses around the USA serving many who dont have enough freight to fill a intermodal box.
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