Paul_D_North_Jr Ken - check your units: 3,474 trucks/ month x 21 tons = 72,954 tons. 145,904,141 lbs. = 72,952 (2,000 lb.) tons. That said, I agree with your basic premise - but you know the territory way better than I ever will. Many have commented before on the rails' lack of ability to market - this is just one more example. - PDN.
Ken - check your units: 3,474 trucks/ month x 21 tons = 72,954 tons.
145,904,141 lbs. = 72,952 (2,000 lb.) tons.
That said, I agree with your basic premise - but you know the territory way better than I ever will.
Many have commented before on the rails' lack of ability to market - this is just one more example.
- PDN.
Paul,
You're right. My typing error.
Ken
I suspect he is a big dog, and it takes both hands to handle him.
I take it the trucker and his dog both enjoy Burger King products while on the road!
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
Flintlock76Was the news story written by a vegan?
Although I normally try to avoid cheap yocks, it becomes almost impossible not to note that this story was promulgated by a Daniela Sternitzky-di Napoli, who included this immortal color line in the story:
"He [the 'pig-parts' driver] said he had to bust the windshield with his steel toe boots so he and his dog, Whopper, could get out.
Now that's Pulitzer grade fact recounting!
charlie hebdo Why attempt to market services that you can't deliver?
Why attempt to market services that you can't deliver?
Or don't want to, for whatever reason.
I'm more annoyed by the sloppy reporting. Pig parts? Looks more like whatever was on that rig was processed and packaged. "Pig parts" sounds more like something nasty rolling around loose.
Was the news story written by a vegan?
jeffhergert A while back I caught a westbound Z train. Those trains don't normally go to us short pool guys, only if there has been a disruption that causes the long pool to fall short on their HOS or if the intermodals do work. Usually Z trains don't do work, but this one did. We went to Council Bluffs and picked containers. That was unusual. I don't remember now how many we picked up, but we increased our length by about 3000/3500 feet to over 10000 ft. Enough that we had to reconfigure the engine consist from conventional to DP. Usually westbound containers have gone to North Platte in the daily freight out of CB or, lately, they have a regular I train go to CB and pick up. Once I had the new paperwork I think I saw why the Z did this. It was mostly (about 3/4 of the containers) meat going west. I think it was all export and I assume it was pork out of western Iowa. They may still have the long haul mentality , but at least it's a start. There were a lot of those power unit containers with cables running to individual containers. I think it was the most I've ever seen of those and I was amazed at how far they ran the cables to the containers. Jeff
A while back I caught a westbound Z train. Those trains don't normally go to us short pool guys, only if there has been a disruption that causes the long pool to fall short on their HOS or if the intermodals do work. Usually Z trains don't do work, but this one did. We went to Council Bluffs and picked containers. That was unusual. I don't remember now how many we picked up, but we increased our length by about 3000/3500 feet to over 10000 ft. Enough that we had to reconfigure the engine consist from conventional to DP. Usually westbound containers have gone to North Platte in the daily freight out of CB or, lately, they have a regular I train go to CB and pick up.
Once I had the new paperwork I think I saw why the Z did this. It was mostly (about 3/4 of the containers) meat going west. I think it was all export and I assume it was pork out of western Iowa. They may still have the long haul mentality , but at least it's a start.
There were a lot of those power unit containers with cables running to individual containers. I think it was the most I've ever seen of those and I was amazed at how far they ran the cables to the containers.
Jeff
Well, that's it right there. On those westbound container loads someone else was doing the marketing. Probably the ship line that wanted the business and knew how to get it. They just went to the UP and told them they wanted a whole bunch of containers moved. And all the UP had to do was say yes. One out of four hogs killed in the US now goes for export. Mexico is the number one destination for volume. Japan is the number one destination by value. The Japanese want a particular breed of hog that cost more. With modern packaging methods fresh, not frozen, pork can be moved to Asia by ocean freight.
I spent some time trying to set up some 3rd party operations to move meat by rail. Triumph Foods is a hog producer owned slaughter operation. At the time they had one large facility in St. Joseph, MO. (20,000 head per day). I did a phone marketing interview with their logistics manager and asked her if they used intermodal. She said the export loads to the west coast went intermodal but the domestic loads went over the road. Well, if you can haul the export you can haul the domestic. There is minimal pork production in the west. It all depends of who is doing the marketing. And the railroads just ain't too good at that. There are expidited trains out of Kansas City to the west coast population centers. Get the pork chop loads on the trains. (This freight is going to go intermodal.)
Beating the railroads over the head for this won't do any good. It would be like whipping a race horse running as fast as he/she can. It's just useless. The railroads don't have the ability or culture to develop markets. That's it.
Are difficulties with sustained speed and keeping a schedule also part of why these opportunities are not sought after?
OK, I'm glad the truck driver and his dog are not hurt too bad. I don't want anyone to get hurt. But...
Read this.
https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2020/02/07/overturned-18-wheeler-spills-pig-parts-all-over-freeway-in-rosenburg-area-authorities-say/
The driver was hauling "Pig Parts" (It looks like hams to me) from Illinois to the Mexican border. Texas just doesn't produce a whole lot of pork. In December 2019 the US exported 145,904,141 tons of pork to Mexico. Based on this driver's 21 ton load that would be 3,474 trucks, or 112 trucks per day.
There is no place in the world better than the US Midwest to raise hogs. (You do not want to move livestock. Move the killed meat instead.)
And the Union Pacific, which coveres the US Midwest, doesn't haul a pound of pork to Mexico. There's plenty of northbound temperature contolled freight demand. (Tomatoes, avocadoes, limes.) So you'll have a two way revenue haul.
What can I say? They just do not understand market development.
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