Right now, every bird in our city is down at the BNSF rail line feasting on a strip of freshly laid corn, about 6" wide,2" deep, and 500 miles long. Who pays for spilliage of grain in this case, and how is it determined how much? Has one of these hoppers ever shown up at the mill totally empty?
A very good question indeed. If I were the shipper of this car full of corn and it arrived at my location empty, I surely would expect the railroad to pay me for its value as I would expect the car they used to be in good enough condition to get my freight to its destination in pretty much the same condition it left its orginin in. Make sense?
But what happens if the loss was a direct result of a defect in the car, and the shipper owned the car?
Called short weight @ delivery. If the consignee wants to he can file a claim against the BNSF. for difference in weight as to what was picked up at origin vs delivery @ destination
Does that mean that each car is weighed at origin and delivery points?
And just wait a while–what the birds (or the rats and dogs and cats and mice and skunks and whatever other wildlife you have there) don’t get will soon start to ferment. Shortly thereafter there will be drunk animals all over the place. Unfortunately; while it may sound funny now, what sometimes happens is the critters get so drunk that they forget their instincts and end up getting hit by the trains.
From the evidence I see along the tracks, their instincts aren’t all that good to begin with!
…That happened right here in Muncie about a year ago…A very heavy path of corn or whatever…But the strange thing about it, I really didn’t see that many birds or anything else after it at the time. Perhaps there was so much of it there wasn’t enough birds " to go around"…
Another aspect of it all: Why doesn’t a railroad employee, person in a tower, someone someplace notice it and notify the RR so they could stop and maybe turn an adjusment tighter, or something…Guess that spillage is something that “FRED” can’t spot and “he” has an excellent viewing spot…