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Tough winter delays new auto and truck shipments
That explains why there are so many Auto Carrier trains on the CN/GTW line in the past month.
My Toyota was built in Long Beach, California. So, car shipments should be uneffected along the Sunset Route.
This also explains truckload after truckload of new autos headed west on I-40 the last three days while we travelled east on I-40 from Southern California.
lol. its all bogus! here is the truth. GM is what they call channel stuffing. As of last month they had 826,000 vehicles sitting on dealer lots unsold. Largest amount in history since they declared bankruptcy! Nobody is buying the cars. Its that simple. Consumers are tapped out, maxed out on the cards, broke, Laid off. Again GM is sinking under tremendous debt. To much to get into but all the auto makers are in trouble minus ford
lol. its all bogus! here is the truth. GM is what they call channel stuffing. As of last month they had 826,000 vehicles sitting on dealer lots unsold. Largest amount in history since they declared bankruptcy! Nobody is buying the cars. Its that simple. Consumers are tapped out, maxed out on the cards, broke, Laid off. Again GM is sinking under tremendous debt. To much to get into but all the auto makers are in trouble minus ford
lol. its all bogus! here is the truth. GM is what they call channel stuffing. As of last month they had 826,000 vehicles sitting on dealer lots unsold. Largest amount in history since they declared bankruptcy! Nobody is buying the cars. Its that simple. Consumers are tapped out, maxed out on the cards, broke, Laid off. Again GM is sinking under tremendous debt. To much to get into but all the auto makers are in trouble minus ford
It seems like the dealer could tansportthecustomet to the factory yaard to pickup the sold car to drive it to thhe dealerfor readtnes service, thusmaming room for moore production.
I work at the Subaru plant in Lafayette (In) and we seem to have no problem getting our product out by rail, even with sales at record levels. Our storage lot has acres and acres of open space because our cars sell as fast as the production people can get them off the line. They go out by rail and truck, Subarus mostly rail, Toyotas seem to go more by truck.
NS pulls the auto racks out and leaves empties, most go over to old Wabash line, some go south on CSX (old Monon). Maybe this is just a Detroit issue?
Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance. The stored rail cars are scrap and the addition of Foreign manufacturers with new plants that are reaching planned production are overburdening equipment as well as placing it out of the “OLD” normal cycles with totally new flow patterns. The refusal of the manufactures to institute long term contractual commitments to support their own growth exacerbates the problems. Rail cars have a life span of 50 years while steamships life span is 14 years and trucks are getting tired at 6 years and are basically scrap at 8 years. Unless the manufacturers are building facilities to fail, the expected growth should be factored into the contracts and the terms should be sufficient to allow the carriers to amortize their equipment to support the lower rates require by the shippers. Using short sea service is possibly cost effective if you do not factor in the delay time in movement to ports, delays to fully load a ship and the ocean transit times. It is still self defeating to expect carriers to have equipment standing by to immediately move the discharges and then sit waiting for the next ship. If the shippers are will to wait for a vessel, why are they not willing to wait for a railcar or a truck? If you always do what you have always done you will always get what you have always gotten. DELAYED SHIPMENTS!
Ford does not seem to have any problems. Maybe it is just the public does not want GM and Chrysler products? I sure don’t, nor any more rice either.
So getting the stored racks road worthy during the fall/winter was not an option? Maintaince could have been done in the south for CSX/NS, and in CA or TX for the western roads. No excuses! Ypu guys need to apologize and shine in the very near future.