The Web site offers tools for car dealers to use to ship cars either by rail, truck or some combination of the two. Union Pacific already helps deliver new cars to dealers nationwide.
The railroad’s automotive vice president, Julie Krehbiel, says the Web site should make it easy for used car dealers to use rail shipping. And having better access to rail shipping might make it easier to buy and sell cars over the Internet.
I would assume they’ve done thier market research. Here in the east, I am not sure it would work as well as in the UP territory. Most “used” cars in the east are taken to localized (100+ or - miles) auctions by dealers and by jobbers for purchase by used car dealers, those new car dealers looking for specific cars, and a few wholesale jobbers. There used to be a great number of “southern” cars brought “north” to some of the auctions but that does not seem the case so much today. But out in UP territory the greater distances between such auction locations and the local new and used dealers could be an interesting and untapped market and could even stretch the reach of such auctions! I am interested to see how it works out.
…Cars out of the SW rarely have road salt “cancer” and the rusters & clunkers from the NE go to Mexico where there is a market. (you ought to see what goes from CO,WY and UT to Mexico in caravans from the auction lots along with “may-pop” tires by the truckload…)