Per Diem Charges

[cefinkjr]

When I worked for NYC-PC in the late '60s, there was a nightly rush to get foreign road cars off home rails before midnight to avoid another day of per diem charges for the foreign cars.  Is that still more or less the case today?

[BaltACD]

cefinkjr

When I worked for NYC-PC in the late '60s, there was a nightly rush to get foreign road cars off home rails before midnight to avoid another day of per diem charges for the foreign cars.  Is that still more or less the case today?

Yes and No - in the early 1970's Per diem was changed to Per Hourm.  The carriers still pay each other for having owner cars on non-owner rails - however, the charges have been adjusted to be accrued on a hourly basis, not a daily basis.

Bridge carriers, such as the RF&P, who 'made its living' on moving cars between its owning carriers without accruing per diem saw their per diem accounts change when the charges were changed from daily to hourly. Getting a car at Potomac Yard at 0100 on Day 1 and delivering it to another carrier at Richmond at 2300 on Day 1 - would have accrued no charges under Per Diem, but 23 hours once it was changed to a hourly charge.

[BEAUSABRE]

It was known, in at least some circles, as "The Midnight Shove"

One of the finer points, if railroad 1 had a transfer run with foreign cars and railroad 2 wouldn't accept it prior to midnight, railroad 2 ate the per diem charges

[BaltACD]

BEAUSABRE

It was known, in at least some circles, as "The Midnight Shove"

One of the finer points, if railroad 1 had a transfer run with foreign cars and railroad 2 wouldn't accept it prior to midnight, railroad 2 ate the per diem charges

Railroad 1 would have to go through the Per Diem Reclaim procedure if they were to get Railroad 2 on the hook for the charges.  Reclaim procedures could and would take months to get 'ironed out' and would be negotiated between the carriers in the view of all of the interchange locations between the carriers involved.

Reclaims can also be filed for cars that are hundreds of miles from the specified Interchange location when the receiving carrier has some kind of 'structural' reason for not being able to accept interchange in the normal course of business.

In today's world, Per Diem accounts are kept on the carriers computer systems and the net balance between carriers are settled on a nominal monthly basis as specified in the AAR Car Service Rules.

[cefinkjr]

Thanks for the quick replies, BaltACD and BEAUSABRE.  i was so badly "under the weather" yesterday that I didn't even touch a computer keyboard (very rare for me).

I thought I had heard about the switch to 'Per Hourm' but I thought it was later than the early 70s.  I was still working for PC then and don't recall there being any fuss about it.  OTOH, I was not, by then, directly involved with Operations and, in addition, there were no major gateways in our reqion so I'll take your word for it, Balt.