Are any of the railroads sorting intermodal into destination blocks at locations other than the traditional Chicago, Memphis, & New Orleans interchanges? I am aware that Triple Crown sorts their Roadrailers into blocks for tranfer in the Ft. Wayne hub, sometimes using the couplermate drawbar to connect trailers back to back.
I have always wondered why there are not more “X shaped” domestic intermodal networks out there other than the general lack of interest in trailer based intermodal. If you think about it a crossing network with sorting in the middle would allow for say three groups of 30 trailers to three destinations to leave from a single terminal, ensuring a full train, adequate volumes to support drayage and maintenance at the terminals, and the ability to “cherry pick” the truckload freight that can pay the highest rail rates due to poor lane performance.
Is the problem balancing rail equipment, the actual uncoupling and flat switching the cars, management, or just there are higher margin opportunities elsewhere so why mess with multiple destinations when you can identify single destination long distance routes and use all your capacity.
I am aware of MiJack’s Container Thruport proposal and it seems like a winner for the major hubs. Couldn’t sometime like a Thruport be constructed for domestic trailer intermodal.
I guess I’ll add some thoughts to make the discussion more interesting if it starts…
Say you were to assume that the average small intermodal yard might actually generate 30 trailer loads to each of three destinations, to make up one train of 90 loads as outlined before. If you were to find a new terminal spacing based on that loading density, wouldn’t you end up with truck dray lengths of a third of the current average?
Wouldn’t the reduced drayage length and the ability to triangulate between multiple small terminals if a street trailer interchange system were in place, generate more traffic due to the lower drayage cost, increasing the “slice” of the total traffic for which higher rates could be charged?
If the above is found to be true then shouldn’t the railroad’s focus for intermodal growth be on the establishment of efficient sorting facilites where the loaded trailers from one train can be interchanged with those from another in a short period of time, say an hour?
Can you give some examples of “average small intermodal” yards? All that I am aware of are large to very large yards. But then I am more familier with western operations.
In current operations I am thinking of yards such at Nashville, TN, Louisville, KY, or Jackson, MS. Not at all in a small city but small in terms of Origin-Destinations pairs that are capturable by intermodal.
In many of these yards I would estimate that the flows might be 30 trailers a day to similar sized cities in the 400-700 mile range, of which there might be 12 or so.
For a city pair in that range it is simply cost PROHIBATIVE anymore. Figure on the drayage to and from the customer to the yard at 1.50 a mile then the shipping on the rail the cost of switching and intermodal equipment does not like to be humped at least the trailers don’t. Then the time required at least 2 days total. A solo driver who is good with time mangement can do a 400 mile run in one day and shipping costs are cheaper.
My only limited knowledge is of UPS and they seem to sort for regions and then resort at the region for smaller areas. You can confirm how many locations a package goes to by tracking it. They seem to get packages to people in less time then they advertize. My conclusion would be that it is a nonproblem. As long as the trailer or container keeps moving in the right direction it will get there. With railroads an inordinate amount of time seems to be used to yard trains and get them to the right track for shipment. Then it seems if you only have eight cars for say Chicago it sits until there are sufficient cars are collected to create a train. The whole train infrastructure could use some updating from 19th century thinking in many ways.
Short haul intermodal is not a market that the railroads seek to enter or one that they do well to serve. In fact, the railroads have closed most of their ‘small volume’ intermodal sites as the cost of doing business generally exceeded the revenues from the business that was done. Most of the ‘Blocking’ that is done, is done by selective destination loading of the trailers on cars as opposed to switching the cars.
Well truckload OTR has gotten fairly expensive. Werner was reporting an average loaded rate of $2.06, including fuel surcharage in the latest SEC filing, with a $1.78 rate per all miles loaded or not, and a $1.66/mile marginal cost exclusive of other business expenses. The rate without fuel surcharges is $1.70.
Werner’s average haul length is 550 miles, so the average trip would cost $1133. If intermodal is to be chosen most put it at a 15% discount so only $963 would be available for the entire move.
If 500 miles of the movement are by rail on a 26 hour schedule at say $0.90/trailer mile that would give a pretty good rail revenue per mile of $70.8 for a 105 spot trailer train at 75% occupancy just for the linehaul. So $513 is now left.
Terminals typically cost around $60/lift so take off $120, yielding $393 for the motor carrier.
If the dray can be kept to 25 miles at each end the remaining $196 could easily cover the cost of an out and back to pick up the trailer at more than $3.00/mile. What I am saying about taking only the moves that really want to go intermodal is this. If the motor carrier doesn’t have equipment or personnel ready for the move then the price that can be asked goes up on the rail end but only a small percentage of moves are that way.This is the same theory behind airlines use of small capacity regional jets to make business connections… However, if they schedule a drop off, pick up, and then return to the terminal in the same run then they can extend their reach or profit margin.
Unfortunately, the problem as I see it is getting enough trailers together that want to go intermodal while at the same time keeping the dray to the terminal short. You can see that the two goals above conflict. With the current mix the number of trailers for each O/D pair is just too low for closely spaced terminals but that is what is required to keep the dray distance short.
So if trailers from multiple destinations can be combined in a simple &quo
I don’t know where your pricing comes from but today I was quoted $1875 to move 6200# from Hayward California to Hammond Indiana in an LCl truck enclosed van. I was told anything going back would be a lot cheaper what with all the empty containers going that direction for shipment to the orient.
The $2.06/mile for a truckload including fuel surcharges came from Werner’s SEC filing as I stated above. The 2150 mile move you mentioned of only 6200 lbs at $0.87/mile doesn’t seem to suggest that freight is cheap as that is only 1/8th the capacity of a truckload.
The other fun issue coming down the line is the revision of the truck Hours of Service rules back to 10 hours of driving time from 11. Realistically that would allow a fresh trucker, departing directly from a terminal, a range of only 650 miles.
But when the driver has to depart from the previous unload and drive to the new loading location usually over local roads that drives eats into the shipper to receiver range. Then if the gate is not open when the trucker gets there at 5AM they have to wait until they can move again, in the theory of the law at least, or take a break along the road but not too long in one day. Perhaps some others can comment on what the real range is assumed to be.
So many of large trucking companies are already using “Drop Yards” or terminals to switch out trailers between tractors. The question is wether a trailer based intermodal terminal with quick in and out times could serve the exact same function? Then the next question is would the 15% discount even apply if the shipper did not know that the trailer was going intermodal?
One flaw in your argument is your per lift cost, I am sure that it is based upon a terminal that keeps its equipment busy 24/7. 30 lifts is less than 1 hour’s work for a competent operator, with yard support.
I was supposing that there would be (2 Trains, 6 Day a Week Arrival and Departure) x (3 Destination Blocks) x (35 Trailers Capacity to each Destination x 75% Utilization) = 158 Lifts a day. Now that includes arrivals and departures but the conventional intermodal departure times are late evening and the arrival times are very early morning so one shift might handle all or maybe not.
I would figure around 25 lifts an hour so 6 1/2 hours of lift and hostler work per day. However, if the terminal was designed like Willow Springs, a two for one, then the hostler might not be needed when unloading trailers as the stradle carrier could just work from a line of in and outbound trailers on each side of the cars. There would still be a need for a gateman 24/7, requiring three shifts.
I dont care if there is 10 pounds in a shoe box in that box or 43,000 pounds. If it needs point A to Point B I’ll do it.
400 miles in half a day. 650 by end of first half day team and another 650 by 24 hours.
The reason for intermodal folks, is simple. Load it one time, close doors and leave it sealed until arrival at reciever.
Let’s not confuse the reason for intermodal.
Water, rail or truck… that box has a destination and hopefully the local yard clerk will have the correct paperwork for that box and the inspector is sober and awake after it gets onto the chassis.
One other reason for rail haulage of intermodal…weight. Most, rail intermodal rates are on a per trailer basis, not on a weight basis. A lot of the boxes that move in rail service could not pass a Highway Weigh Station without being ticketed for being overloaded. With most of the drayage for the boxes, being ‘local’ to the ramps, most of the boxes are not likely to pass a weigh station.
Not anymore. State DOT cops are now setting up portable scales outside of the major intermodal yards and if they catch a truck running overweight they send the ticket to the carrier not the driver since he has no choice but to haul that container. The FMCSA finally passed regulations making the carrier responible for 2 things in intermodal shipping not the driver since most of them are independant owner operators. First is the Carrier will maintain the chassies and trailers used in service in full compliance with all DOT regulations and will pay for all repairs needed and compensate the drivers for their time at a rate not less than 70 dollars an hour. Second is any and all fines for said containers chassis and trailers are the responibility of the carrier not the driver. That means if a shipper loads a container so it weighs 65K before going on a chassis the RR better break it into 2 since at 1 dollar a lb it get very expensive very fast for over gross fines.
I dont know, Ive been out of the container business for a very long time. Back in my day all we had were permits, bingo cards and legally can carry 99,500 pounds to and from the dock on any interstate in the midatlantic area. Frequently Ive been over 100K and once or twice carried home multi-thousand dollar citations from scalehouses wiping out any profits for the run. (In the company, never my name)
Really think about this weight business for a moment. A few hundred dollars worth of sensors on the suspension of a tractor trailer can tell the driver and the company the exact weight on each axle and possible split again to show side balance if necessary. I have seen this in use at the produce docks on the rio grande and out west and the people keep loading the box until the drivers say “That’s it… no more! we’re maxed out.” and go on thier merry way without having to waste time and more money hunting a public scale.
No. they wont spend the money and spec the rigs at the factory this way. As long as this continues, smokey and company will continue to rake in the revenue from the heavier than necessary trucks. Usually ones with insufficient axles or length or both.
Gross overs is not as bad as axle overs if memory serves. The railroad can always haul the stuff heavy and that is why they do a good job of it.
Let’s not kid ourselves about scalehouses. There are about 20 in the USA that are fearsome and require the driver and company to be professional. The rest of them just grow weeds and slowly get reclaimed by nature. Take the one down the freeway from my home. Signage proclaim it to be a truck weight and inspection area. These last 10 years or so they have been open officialy once or twice for a few days for that specific duty. Otherwise the padlock rusts on the closed sign.
Try doing that here in IL around Chicago you would be hung. Since Ryan and the CDL for Bribes broke the DOT came down hard on any equipment problems out here. All DOT cops out here carry a full set of scales in the car and also can and will shut down the company for any severe issues the truck has. There was a small company I drove for boss started to cut back on maintance Feds would not do anything State found out and PULLED HIS Intrastate authority then his insurance for 2 years then fined him 3 mill for equipment alone. Then he tried to restart the company under a new name state found out they shut down the new company for the same reasons.