Yes rail does have its advanvatages but however a truck goes from door to door and also when a load has to be there asap a trucker can get it there faster than a rail connection. A train on a good day maybe 1000 miles a good team on a good day headed west can cover 1400-1500 miles I know I have done that repeatdly. Lets see a train go overnight Las cruezes NM to Chicago.
Yes that driver is cheating on his logs to do that .
Trying to compare apples and oranges…this does not work either.
Please explain what you mean by comparing “apples to oranges”. Thank you.
He means comparing things that are not alike.
For instance in the suggested tug of war, I’ve no doubt that a 3300+hp EMD loco would make mincemeat of a road truck. What would be more interesting, would be a tug of war between a road truck and a rail mounted one. (Many years ago the Clogher Valley Railway, a narrow gauge line in Ireland, had a truck that was converted to run on rails. it could pull a couple of wagons and was cheaper to run than a steam loco. When the CVR closed down this contraption was bought by the Co. Donegal line who ran it for a while then dismantled it as it employed the same type of engine as their diesel railcars).
He said two drivers (team driveing)each driver can drive 10 houres at a time i see no log cheating there
Yup. Team drivers can beat RR intermodal every time - for a price. Not every shipper thinks the price is worth the time saved. That’s why truckload intermodal shipments, from the truckload carriers, are up double digits the past two years.
My father and I in 1998 set a team milage record for the company we were at. in Jan 98 we ran 31000 paid miles. and we did it without one log book voliation. The only reason we did not do more was the fact that our truck decided that throwing out its rear end in CA was more important than keeping running.
The reason why a trucker can cover more distance faster then the train is not because of the driver or of the truck, but it is because of the hiway wich is managed by the government, all you do is pay and go.
A train could go just as fast exept that its the track that is not up to it, too many slow orders and stops but the track is managed by the railroad company who has to be more accountable for the costs of the track. Alot of single track vs alot of multi lane hiway.
Rail: fast sleep at 60mph, arrive refreshed at station, meet friends and family.
Road: fast asleep at 60mph, arrive Heaven
Let’s see now, that comes out to 1,000 miles per day, assuming NO days off (what a life!). Assuming that the truck was operated for 16 hours a day, that comes out to an average speed of 62.5 MPH, or 41.666 MPH if operated around the clock. If there were no log book violations, then a lot of speeding violations were involved.
It is called having a truck that will RUN the speed limits. West of omaha to the CA line the speed limit is 75 mph 10 hrs is 750 miles a shift I routiely ran 700+ in a shift that month CA and IL were the only states that slowed us down. We had a 1998 Pete with a 550 Cat 13 speed and 3.73 rears at 75 it turned 1400 right in the power range of the engine. It would climb Sherman hill at around 55-60 depending on the weight of the load. I know what a good team can do. I have spent more time on I-80 across Nebraska and Wyoming than I know what to do. My father and I in December of 97 did not see east of Cheyene the entire month until the 23rd when we went home.
I don’t have to pay taxes to support railroads. Then again, I don’t run on tracks everyday, either, so call that a tie.
Other than Texas, everywhere you go signals look the same on the highway, but, at least for now, on the railroads signals have some variety.
Ther is more than one way to define efficiency.
The real advantage of the truck is it can go door to door from shipper to receiver. Neither need to have a railroad spur or even be close to a railroad. Rail shipments are made into trains in rail yards, which may be miles from the real origin nor destination of the shipment and handling in itermediate yards causes additional delays.
Also many shippers do not need or want to ship in rail car lots and recievers do not need car loads of merchandise or materials. Yes the railroads once handeled this kind of business, but in those times there really was no alternative.
Road: no bathroom in car
Rail: no bathroom on MARTA - except some of the “passengers” don’t know or believe it![:O]
Roads don’t get torn up and taken permanently out of service (except when a newer road is built to replace the old road).
Railroads have been torn out with aplomb, and continue to be ripped out (and not replaced), which means more roads are needed to take up the slack…