The link shows shippers are saving $700+ per intermodal shipment. Of course, that does not count for short trips, quick deliveries, or meeting scheduled time. Still, what are the RRs not doing to grab more of this traffic?
US spot intermodal savings dipped in Q4, but remained above historical norms | Journal of Commerce
I started to read the article but got cut off since I am not a subscriber. 
Rich
Railroads donât want to get involved in the variability of the SPOT intermodal market. Their terminals have finite capacity and they have endeavored to fill that capacity with Contracted traffic that is fairly consistent in the volumes that are being handled.
The SPOT market is highly volatile both in volume and price - railroads donât deal with volatility very well.
This, and the whole commoditization of intermodal box moves, is beginning to remind me disturbingly of the old New York Garment District joke âwhat we canât make on margin, weâll make up for on volumeâ. If railroads are stuck in a ârace to the bottomâ to squeeze out the âmiddleman profitâ, then why aggressively go after new business subject to the same pressures?
Even before PSR, the idea of high-speed or even precision-timed kanban/JIT delivery guarantees wasnât exactly something I saw shippers flocking to. With the recent announcement that UPS traffic is no longer âprofitableâ enough to bridge, perhaps the last reason to run 70mph trains other than âbetter equipment utilizationâ is fast leaving the station.
And I donât think that any current flavor of precision railroading is likely to improve that, even if domestic moves increase with the advent of tariffs, etc.
You have to aviate before you can start doing navigation, and youâd better work out navigation before you try communicating. And youâd better have all three in practice before you start advertising the damn airline.
My opinion is that RRs have to drop the mindset that they are loose car franchises that just happen to have intermodal business and reorient to being intermodal franchises that accommodate some merchandise traffic.
The trick is to stop going slowâŚ60 mph would likely do if you didnât drag up every hill at 20 mph or constantly reduce speed for curves and junctions.
This might mean more HP/ton and burning a bit more fuel (gasp!). Or even, God forbid, electrifying heavy mainlines.
(It ALSO means extending crew disrtictsâŚ)
But, as long as the RRs think they are box car businesses and fuel optimization is king, they will leave the juicy traffic to trucks.
Letâs hope they figure this out soon!
That saying actually pertains to onboard emergencies.
Of course it does. Thatâs why I used it.
Be sure you make a practice of effective execution before you start deciding what niches you want to compete in. And get both settled before you start expensively promoting your service.
Here is the article: Intermodal volume still outperforming - FreightWaves
Here is the FreightWaves intermodal portal, which highlights our coverage⌠No one should ever have to read the JOC. Intermodal Archives - FreightWaves
Not exactly steady demand that the carriers can plan upon.
The largest dips seem to consistently occur around Thanksgiving and Christmas. RRâs should be able to anticipate and prepare for those. It would be interesting to know what drives some of the other ones. Weather related? Linked to labor action at one or more ports?
Regardless, if one were to plot an overall trend line using, say, a 13 week rolling average, container traffic is clearly on an upswing right now, as Freightalley posted.
We need that chart back to 1990 along with GDP.
Is intermodal performing with, at or below economic growth?
Last decade has been under, I believe. Too much carload/cost cutting emphasis.
That is typical for freight markets. You have a lot of intraperiod movements (end of week, month, quarter, etc). You want to look at a seasonality chart to get a real perspective.
GDP is an unreliable indicator when it comes to tracking freight demand. Only 40% of GDP is related to goods movement. So much of GDP is services, finance, and government spending. To understand marketshare of rail intermodal, its best to compare it to trucking vs. intermodal.
Since mid 2020 intermodal volumes are up 19%, while trucking is down 16%. Its really a tale of two cities.
This a good example of why the Firecrown purchase of Trains can be a blessing. With US railroads depending on freight for >90% of revenue, itâs nice to have people on board who really understand the freight business.
Very interesting to see the difference between trucking and intermodal volumes.
It would also be interesting to see carload stats. Are they going down as intermodal goes up, maybe indicating that IM is eating the carload traffic.
Here you goâŚ
Intermodal traffic up 104% since 2008 (white) and car loads (orange) down 23% in the same period.
Right now the overall logistics marketplace doesnât have a good handle on whatâs going to happen near and far term economic wise. Inflation remains a major problem bankrupted carriers in the OTR industry are still stacking up plus we have a major shake up happening inside the government itself. Thereâs going to be massive amounts of spending being cut off whom what where itâs going to effect is anyoneâs guess.
Then throw in the trade issues Trumpâs tariffs while not popular in the media are forcing companies that didnât want to manufacture their products in the USA to bring production home. Stellaris aka Chrysler is starting production of the next-generation of Ram midsized pickup trucks for the 2027 model year. Originally it was going to be done in Mexico however after Trumpâs 25 percent tariff itâs going into the mothballed Belvedere Illinois plant near Rockford Illinois instead. 1500 workers will be recalled or hired there. Iâm hearing rumors about Chevy bringing the Equinox production line back from Mexico possibly putting it in Wisconsin. Right now thereâs major violatitly in everything letâs see whatâs going on in 6 months.
Indeed⌠This is the world we live in and operate every single day⌠Weâve been investing in the B2B news intermodal/rail news coverage and have big plans to expand the Trains industry info and data over the next year.
If you are interested in following our rail & freight news, check out FreightWaves: Railroad Freight Industry News | FreightWaves
