Last week I was talking to a fellow who lives in Trail B.C. He was telling me that Canadian Pacific charges the Cominco Smelter $400 per car to switch it to a siding. I was aghast on these rates. Would these rates be any where to being true? How does these rates compare to other switching rates?
I been quoted high and lower prices.Seems like each railway has there own price.
Take a look at our tariffs and judge for yourself…
http://www.ptra.com/pages/basetariff2000B.pdf
$400.00 per car aint all that much…
Intra plant switch moves is the most costly against a shipper. This is when a shipper requests a car to be moved from one spot to another on the same trk. Problem is that the rr many times never gets this documented correctly and looses out on 1000’s dollars of revenue. This is due to condrs not reporting the work correctly on the hammerhead device. Now I have fallen into this in the past. My method has been to write out exactly what was done and fax it to CQS. After calling in to verify the faxed was received and brief on what was done, the clerks say it is easier for them to process the reporting the old fashion paper faxing method instead of the electronic methods.
Shippers & Consignees are entitled to one placement of a car for the purpose of loading it at origin or unloading it at destination. Subsequent moves within the plants are considered ‘Intra-Plant Switches’ and there is a charge for this service. Each carrier has their own intra-plant switch charges.
The carriers are in the business of making money for their services and must charge for extra services they provide.
This looks like it is in the ballpark. Many shippers have hired contracters to perform intra-plant switching. The road haul carrier just spots and pulls a block of cars at an interchange track. About twenty years ago the SP in TX and LA went on a campaign to get customers to do their own switching. One of the problems was our own poor record keeping to back up the frieght bill. Another problem was the danger from switching cars of methyl-ethyl death. We did not want to provide that service.
Now I understand why anyone with 5 railcars on a siding has their own switcher.