Way back when the ICC outlawed “Billboard Reefers” as being too distracting to the motoring public or something like that. I posit that it is long past overdue to repeal that regulation.
Think about it. Motorists stopped at a grade crossing are a ready-made captive audience. What advertiser would pass that up? By having the advertiser pay all or most of the painting costs for boxcars, that money could go straight to the RR’s bottom line. What better advertising for the railroads than to showcase thier largest customers on the side of the cars they use to serve them. I wouldn’t limit it to customers, though. Can you think of a major sporting venue that hasn’t been “branded” by some other company. Apples and oranges, I know, but the idea is similar.
Another aspect is safety. Trains are so drab and boring that they now have to add highly-reflective stripes to get motorists to notice a train stopped or moving on a crossing without gates or flashers so drivers won’t drive into the side of the train. Imagine how much more noticable a bright multi-colored consist will be noticed by everyone.
Sounds mighty cool Mike–but would it be a new target for gafetti artist? Wouldnt bother me a bit but probadly cause real mess of cars advertising by increased gafetti markings. In the view of costs involved may prove to be too much an issue here tho.
I wonder how many companies would complain if a car with an advertisement for a competitor showed up at their facility. With all of the graffiti on cars these days, and the amount seems to still be increasing, I think that the railroads would have a might difficult sell. Also, most people get agitated when stopped by a train. The potential advertisers would probably want to see research that shows that this would not give people a negative opinion of the product. Of course, one could probably make a similar argument about commercials.
What year did the ICC do that? I didn’t know that was the reason behind the end of the billboard cars. Immagin, outlawing something that makes people notice a train.
Don’t both VIA (I know they’re in Canada) and Amtrak have locos with advertising on them? They put large advetisement decals on transit busses. I’ve heard of people involved in accidents say that some billboards caused them to take there eyes off the road, but not use the busses as a reason… Yet.
The graffiti could be a problem, and the RR cars are easyer to hit than most billboards.
GREAT!! just what I needed, yet another vantage point from which to be harrassed by the Geico gekko and the Aflac duck.!!
I’m sure the viagra ads, complete with box car bertha’s cleavage positioned “just so”, would be a real crowd pleaser, but I can do without being paceddown a lonely highway by an add for depends undergarments when I’ve been looking for an open restroom for too many miles already.
It would be difficult to execute for several reasons:
The before mentioned graffiti issue. A partial wrap coverage of a boxcar would run in the area of $2000 - $5000. With an investment of that amount, the graphics owner would REQUIRE the equipment be clean and free of graffiti.
The competition issue was also raised. Not cool to deliver a boxcar with ABC graphics to competitor XYZ for loading/unloading.
Information coverup. Take a good look at any railroad car. There is essential information on the cars that must be available to read. The advertising would get in the way.
Economically unfeasible. Once again the trucking companies would be a major competitor. Why? A truck will generate in the vicinity of 10 million visable impressions per year (defined as one person viewing the form of advertising). I cannot see with railcar utilization being so low that the visual impression would be anywhere near that, probably 10%. Thus, the trucks can give much more bang for the advertising buck.
Asset control. Trucks can be targetted for certain markets or lanes. For example a major LTL carrier had such a program several years ago in which they “rented” truck sides for marketing. They could then demographically pinpoint that equipment, say for the LA, NYC, or Chicago market. That equipment would stay only in that market. Imagine the advantages of that program vs a railcar. Note however, the Chicago Transit Authority has made it’s trains available and currently being used by companies such as Apple for IPODS.
Even with the advantages that trucks have, the advertising brokerage concept never really took off. Why? Too many other options for advertising. Outdoor advertising is effective, but has a very small percentage of the overall advertising budget dollars.
Actually up here in Toronto GO Transit often has at least 1 of the bilevel Bombadier car in each 2-3 10 car sets in some kind of wrapper. Telus (Telephone), Movies, Car Insurance, Airlines etc. At little while ago one of the advertisers, JetsGo airline went bellyup suddenly. Well the wrapper didn’t come off the car but since the bills weren’t being paid, the defunct logo was painted or covered up, luckily the airline’s green was a pretty good match for the GO green. I have noticed however that some of the movie poster versions don’t come off until long past the time the films have left the theatres, guess the wrappers only come off when the car is shopped.
It makes me think of some really old country song: “I’m in love with a girl …wearin’ nothing but a smile…and a towel…on a billboard…in a field…near big ol’ hiway…”[:-,]
LOL! And I’m sure that the bottled water ads would be “special” too on those days where the past 5 gas stations have all been out of business. Maybe with some shiny glitter that sparkles as it moves in the wind?
Think of it this way: A railroad logo on a boxcar, a container line logo on the container, the trucking company’s logo on their trailers, these are all forms of advertising that catch the passerby’s eye whether they are interested in trains or not. But the ones that really make people think of wanton wanting are the distributor owned trailers of the beer and cola companies. Just about everyone can recall what the Coors Light reefer trailer entails in the “Silver Bullet” makeup. The red Coca-Cola trailer, the blue Pepsi trailers, the green 7-Up trailer, all these are recognizable and thus effective forms of advertising. So it’s not inconceivable that a 3rd party may agree to pay for advertising on trailers and containers that frequent the rails, albeit in a round about way to get past regulators. I’m suprised that a beer or other consumer goods/services company hasn’t thought of forming their own logistics divisions, buying their own fleet of trailers with their recognizable consumer ads on them, and then leasing them back to the trucking companies and 3pi’s. Might have to make sure the ad doesn’t end up on a competitor’s dock, so the ad might have to be something that usually wouldn’t move in a dry van, reefer, or domestic container, such as an insurance or a financial services company. So yes, you could end up seeing the Geiko gecko or the AFLAC duck on such a trailer or container that would otherwise be nondescript.
