What I am looking at is a Railway Postal System where trains would stop at special platforms and there would be mini containers that would be automaticaly pushed on and off in seconds–rather then unloading a entire Trailer at the Intermodal Ramp and draying it to/from the UPS Package Terminal.
If I understand NS owned Mayflower Lines and UP owned Overnight and was sold a couple of years later. Overnight did very little if any buisness with UP and was thus never intragrated
I don’t believe that Rock Island Motor Transit was ever in the package delivery business. I remember seeing Rock Island trucks in Minneapolis/ St.Paul area used in local cartage in the late 1960’s. These trucks were gone a decade before the RI demise.
Package delivery is a tough way to make a buck. Fedex and UPS already have the cream of the business. They also have the infrastructure; like warehouses, the trucks, and drivers.The other package delivery business is done by independent contractors who go after the rest of the business that UPS and Fedex doesn’t want. Warren Buffet isn’t going to sell popsicles at the North Pole and he is not going to get into the package delivery business either
Santa Fe Skyways was a freight-only venture, post-WW2. As noted by another poster, it was shut down by the government. The air-rail transcontinental passenger service you refer to was an earlier experiment, in the '20’s or '30’s I believe, and the airline involved was the predecessor to TWA (not connected to either the ATSF or PRR).
Also, a poster mentions that LTL/package companies such as UPS or FedEx are national, whereas no one railroad covers the entire country. In fact, UPS and FedEx are now global. If you’re asking whether UP or CSX should consider buying one of these companies, how about trying it the other way around? Should global freight handling companies buy one or more US railroads?
First of all, they would draw the opposition and ire of all the truckers. The only difference today is that you can get a truck to bring the delivery right to your doorstep instead of a REA office where you have to pick it up yourself. In some cities, REA also had local delivery service (for an added charge) so the item, especially smaller items, could be quickly delivered. But for larger and heavier items, there should still be a place for REA to compete with the trucking companies that use our free roadways.
Just as they do in Australia and to some extent in Britain. Using a small 20 ft container means a small truck can pick it up and deliver it to the customer’s site and even negotiate tight streets and alleys.
Might there be an opportunity transporting PODS and the like by rail?
Why would they want to? There are two very efficient and competitive and a third not quite so efficient, out there doing an excellent job. The railroad’s approach has been to partner with them. Let them do the retail end and the railroads do what they do best, the line haul.
The railroads are still involved in the business. They are Major partners with fed ex and ups.
Actually, it was North American Van Lines.