I had always understood that UPS was dedicated to sending as many trailers as possible by rail, and paying a primium to get the fastest service possible; and that FedEx was just as dedicated to using tractors on the interstate for their ground service.
HOWEVER — this morning I saw several FedEx GROUND (not LTL) trailers on the JBHunt train BNSF was running North over Tehachapi. This train was a block or so behind the ex-991 and its UPS trailers.
Has FedEx changed their mind? Is this just a test? Just a weekend thing? Or is FedEx leasing out trailers to another service?
Alot of the Companies that make up the Fed-Ex LTL and National were Intermodal companioes prior to being bought out by FedEx. Watkins and National Freightways were 2 of the carriers they bought out and both were larger RR users to move their Trailers. Fed Ex is more than likely keeping the freightlanes the same and using the RR’s to ship the longer distance.
Did the trailers look new? It seems a while back someone else had seen Fed Ex Ground trailers on piggyback trains, but it turned out to be delivery of new trailers–however it sounds like these were on a high priority train so I don’t know if that hot of a service would be used for delivery.
Around here( BNSF Transcon), it seems most of the Z trains seem to have one or two (or more) FedEx trailers on trains going east and west. Eight or nine years ago, the FedEx trailers were test runs. Now they seem to run on a regular basis.
FedEx ground and their road freighters, (nee: Arkansas Frtways, and other purchased carriers) have routes that would qualify for expedited rail movement. Some classes of their express business would qualify as well ( similarly, as with UPS; Any truckable long distance freight requiring team trucks-2 drivers- most likely would be a premium service rail candidate.)