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LCL: Norfolk Southern gets it..

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Posted by Shadow the Cats owner on Thursday, September 16, 2021 7:19 AM

Greyhounds I asked my husband who hauled more multiple pick up and drop loads in his career than he cares to remember.  Even when he had 4 pick ups and 4 drops from California to the Midwest he still had the whole load delivered in 3 days including the pick-up and all deliveries.  How it's done is simplicity itself.  They start with the farthest away and the first drop is always the furthest away from the last stop.  He had a routine load that had 3 picks one in Iowa 2 in Nebraska then his drops were Reno Sacramento and San Francisco.  Those loads paid him an extra 150 a trip.  

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Posted by greyhounds on Thursday, September 16, 2021 12:46 PM

Shadow the Cats owner
Greyhounds I asked my husband who hauled more multiple pick up and drop loads in his career than he cares to remember.  Even when he had 4 pick ups and 4 drops from California to the Midwest he still had the whole load delivered in 3 days including the pick-up and all deliveries.  How it's done is simplicity itself.  They start with the farthest away and the first drop is always the furthest away from the last stop.  He had a routine load that had 3 picks one in Iowa 2 in Nebraska then his drops were Reno Sacramento and San Francisco.  Those loads paid him an extra 150 a trip.  

I don’t doubt that. 
 
As I understand things, the multiple stops for loading and unloading were having a significant negative impact on the traditional terminal-based LTL carriers.  Until…
 
The new HOS rules and electronic logs came around.  These limited the miles and hours a driver could do in a day.  And freight went back to the terminal-based LTL carriers.
 
You know drivers would readily falsify paper logs.  I am not accusing your husband of doing anything wrong.  But drivers would make a 36-hour Chicago-New York round trip with no rest or sleep.
 
I still think it’s doubtful that currently a driver can do 700 miles a day with stops for partial unloading.
"By many measures, the U.S. freight rail system is the safest, most efficient and cost effective in the world." - Federal Railroad Administration, October, 2009. I'm just your average, everyday, uncivilized howling "anti-government" critic of mass government expenditures for "High Speed Rail" in the US. And I'm gosh darn proud of that.
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Posted by Backshop on Thursday, September 16, 2021 2:43 PM

There was one carrier that specialized in partial TL operation.  They would carry 3-5 stops OTR.  They were called Jevic Transportation.  They were bought by Yellow Freight but kept separate.  They filed for bankruptcy in the 90s and closed their doors.

Haul of Fame: Jevic Transportation - FreightWaves

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Posted by MP173 on Thursday, September 16, 2021 4:07 PM

Just checked with our shipping dept.

We can ship 1000 pounds of class 55 freight from NW Indiana to Atlanta for $228.00 - standard delivery - 3 days.

Jevic did in fact sell to Yellow and the owner after his non compete ended moved on and started New Century, which folded about 2014 or so.  Part of the remains of that operation is currently being handled by one of my truckload carriers accounts.

I dont know how a driver today could drive 700 miles with the ELogs in place, unless it was a team operation.

There are lots of stories out there of "the good old days" of drivers running on no sleep or rest from West Coast to Midwest or beyond.

Ed

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Posted by Shadow the Cats owner on Thursday, September 16, 2021 9:35 PM

The current HOS allows up to 11 hours per day of driving time and a maximum of 14 hours per day total time on duty or other wise once the daily clock is started.  So if a driver is going west spent most of the first day loading say that took 8 hours total and most places get you in and out anymore with carriers demanding and getting detention time for their drivers.  He still had 6 more he could go.  That's about 380 miles.  The next day grabbing fuel doing his pretrip inspection at the same time yes that's 100 percent legally allowed.  Then he drives for his first 8 hours I'd his carrier has no governor the driver can run 75.  He'll have over 500 miles in 8 hours easy.  Then in his last 3 can still do 200 more.  

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Posted by tree68 on Thursday, September 16, 2021 10:19 PM

MP173
There are lots of stories out there of "the good old days" of drivers running on no sleep or rest from West Coast to Midwest or beyond.

Saw a story about a train crew that was talking to the DS on the radio, telling him they were tied down (they were out of hours) as the horn in the background merrily blew for crossings...

Speed limits vary, even within states.  I-75 is 70 MPH south of Saginaw, MI, and 75 MPH north.  I do believe there are some western states where things are a little faster still.

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Posted by BaltACD on Thursday, September 16, 2021 10:40 PM

Shadow the Cats owner
The current HOS allows up to 11 hours per day of driving time and a maximum of 14 hours per day total time on duty or other wise once the daily clock is started.  So if a driver is going west spent most of the first day loading say that took 8 hours total and most places get you in and out anymore with carriers demanding and getting detention time for their drivers.  He still had 6 more he could go.  That's about 380 miles.  The next day grabbing fuel doing his pretrip inspection at the same time yes that's 100 percent legally allowed.  Then he drives for his first 8 hours I'd his carrier has no governor the driver can run 75.  He'll have over 500 miles in 8 hours easy.  Then in his last 3 can still do 200 more.  

In the mean time he is trying his damnedest to find a parking space at at Interstate Rest Area so he can start his rest clock.  The entrance and exit ramps of the rest area will be filled with parked rigs a half mile in either direction of the actual rest area.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by Shadow the Cats owner on Friday, September 17, 2021 9:39 AM

With reserved parking in the truck stops nowadays and proper trip planning and if your carrier reimburses for that expense you can get a parking spot for the night.  I know we do here and I spend about 2 hours a day calling the locations needed for my driver's to get that space.  

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Posted by BaltACD on Friday, September 17, 2021 10:08 AM

Shadow the Cats owner
With reserved parking in the truck stops nowadays and proper trip planning and if your carrier reimburses for that expense you can get a parking spot for the night.  I know we do here and I spend about 2 hours a day calling the locations needed for my driver's to get that space.  

Not all organizations provide your Mother Hen services.

When doing long distance traveling I prefer to run during the night as there is less traffic on the highways.  With the bulk of the traveling being done on the Interstate system, my personal observations are the virtually all designate Rest Areas are filled to overflowing during hours of darkness with all variety of OTR trucks.

With me towing my race car on its trailer, it can become difficult to find a stopping location to answer natures calls.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by Shadow the Cats owner on Friday, September 17, 2021 10:31 AM

Yeah but then most carrier's have a turnover rate of over 100 percent a year.  We're lucky if we need 15 to 20 percent in new driver's in a year for the fleet.  

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Posted by Wayne Jenkins on Wednesday, September 22, 2021 8:30 PM
Having been in LTL/TPL for 48 years behind a desk (pricing/traffic), I’d like to put my 2 cents in. 
First, kudos to NS for trying.  But get your system assembled.  Use existing assets, maybe resurrect the old TripleCrown service brand.  Establish your terminal locations and get them near your intermodal yards where the boxcars can get to those intermodal trains quickly after cutoff time at the cross-dock. 
Transit times?  Chicago-Atlanta via truck is generally a 2-day sell now.  At Austell, the 9 a.m. unloading Mon-Wed. would require a scramble to make a 2-day delivery, but also factor in that early cutoff @ Calumet.  Most LTL’s don’t start picking up until they make their deliveries (figure lunch time or shortly after for the switch) 3 p.m. doesn’t give you much time to get back in with your pickups and transload your freight unless you run a dedicated delivery team and a dedicated pickup team simultaneously. Fix that and transit times are competitive.  Thurs-Fri would easily make a Monday delivery in ATL.  
As for Chicago-Miami, FEC advertises 2nd morning between ATL & S. FL.   That would make it 4 days CHI-ATL-MIA.  Averitt Express does it in 3.  But remember, we’re talking BUSINESS DAYS.  W-Th still delivers Monday.  Otherwise, Averitt beats you on Mon-Tues., matches you Wed-Thur, and beats you Friday (AVRT delivers Monday, NS/FEC on Tuesday). 
Coverage?  How far out will your terminal be picking up & delivering?  How far can you reach and still make your departure cutoff?  Once you draw that line, will you have LTL carriers willing to handle that “interline” (out of range) traffic at a percentage of the published single-line price to those outlying zip codes? Combination rates (rail price + truck price) won’t be price-competitive.  Unlike 50 years ago when we had “hometown” carriers that only ran between the small towns and the nearest large city, nowadays it’s just larger carriers with all-points-in-several-states coverage.  For instance, Atlanta doesn’t have any small hometown carriers today.  50 years ago, we had Pike, Owens, Meadors, Cedartown-Atlanta, R.C.A., Atlanta Motor Lines, MR&R, GFA, even Brown Transport to handle those short hauls today.  They’re all gone.  Most of the LTL’s serving Atlanta today also serve Chicago (Central Freight out of Texas may be the only one that doesn’t). 
It’s a good idea but prepare to price aggressively and find a way to offer coverage well away from your rail route.  Decide what you’re going to do, advertise it, and find reasons that will encourage shippers to leave their LTL carrier in favor of TFT or whatever you’re calling it.   As to buying another carrier, forget ODFL, they're a gold mine right now with an OR approaching what railroads were glad to have not that many years ago.  
    

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