Does any one know the exact reason why rails haven't displaced OTR shipping

Trains are great at moving large shipments between long distance. They suck at small shipments, over short distances. And a small shipment to the railroad, is less than a train load... 100 cars fully loaded.

 

There is a soda ash mine in WY and right next to it (as in within 100 yards) is a plant that uses the soda ash. They move it by rail car from mine to plant. The plant manager told me it takes 4 (FOUR!) days for the railroad to move the cars once they are loaded.

TA

 

My buddy got into the hay business this year and I asked if he needed any help with finding him some trucks. He laughed and said, oh no, I'm using the railroad, way cheaper.

Ok, he called me the other day and said his customers were not too happy about the long, long delivery wait time. Plus, one of his shipments caught fire in the middle of the desert from sitting in the sun too long. Lol.

 

And this is why they have 3000 gal tanks on both sides and stop about every 500 miles max? More like move 100000 tons one mile on 483 gal ...

 

Rail is way cheaper to move freight, downside is it takes a long time so obviously time sensitive freight has to be on the road.

JB Hunt, (the actual person) shook hands with BNSF, all the trucking companies are trying to play catch up with jb hunt and no where close.

 

Anyone who has ever ordered a brand new car and has been waiting for delivery and all they get told by the dealer, its held up in the rail yard we can not find it, knows why trains will never replace trucks.

 

Also another question I had when I was pulling containers was, How is it cost effective for John Deere to make there Mini Excavators in Japan Ship them by container to LA then put them on a train bound for Chicago. Then said container hauler picks the can up (oh and by the way said container hauler comes out of Dav IA) and takes it back to Dav IA (when the train probably went right through there on the way to Chicago) to John Deere Davenport works so it can get off loaded from the can and loaded on a flatbed to the dealer.

 

Trucks can get THERE, trains can get close. Also, since the economic downturn and the increase in price of oil, the rails added capacity and have taken share from OTR, they came close to capacity. Wait until the economy picks up (for real) and that extra capacity is already in use....OTR will come back....simple, supply and demand.

 

A train moving 1 ton of freight 483 miles on 1 gallon of fuel is the same sort of math as saying a truck carrying 25 tons of freight that gets 6 mpg moves 1 ton of freight 150 miles on a gallon of fuel. Somebody was definitely getting creative in trying to make the railroad sound efficient...while they require a heck of a lot of fuel to get where they are going, they can move a considerable amount of freight.

 

Great point. Reminds me of pointless statistics. My favorite is your 5 times more likely to crash 5 miles from your home, well duh, your 5 times more likely to simply be 5 miles from home in most commutes leaving and returning.