The trucking industry appears to be in the eye of an economic and government policy storm pushing freight transportation toward rail. Historically high diesel costs, zero-emissions mandates, and taxpayer-funded infrastructure investment seem to bypass trucker driving opportunities.
Studies indicate that the cost of diesel at the pump skyrocketed by 30 cents per mile since 2019. That means an owner-operator deals with a per-mile cost of about 72 cents. While large freight carriers and big-box fleets can absorb these costs, mom-and-pop outfits are getting caught between a rock and a hard place. A recent analysis by the Wall Street Journal highlights the difference in fuel usage between Class 8 vehicles and railroads.
“Another beneficiary of high diesel prices in the past has been the freight railroad business. CSX, for example, touts the fact that in 2018 it moved a ton of freight 492 miles on a single gallon of fuel while heavy-duty trucks managed only 134 miles — barely one-quarter as much,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “And Union Pacific boasts that if just 10 percent of freight moved by America’s largest trucks was instead transported by rail, then the nation would save 1.5 billion gallons of fuel a year — the equivalent of taking 3.2 million cars off the nation’s highways.”
Emissions-conscious policymakers are not blind to the difference in how each mode of transportation burns fuel. When putting the $1.2 trillion infrastructure spending package under a microscope, it’s abundantly clear truckers have been largely ignored. Improved roads and bridges support use by the general public. Other investments tend to reduce trucking miles in favor of water and rail. That has been the case in areas such as the coastal North Carolina and Virginia as well as efforts to reduce truck traffic in California. Although those regions target water transportation over trucks, the current environment of costs, supply chain snarls, and policy priorities favor a shift to rail.
Inland ports projects, such as the massive proposal in California, are not just a strategy to untangle overwhelmed ports. An increased number of containers would land on rail cars, and sideline truck hauls. A close look at the goals set by the proposed California Inland Ports project points to rail-over-truck priorities.
- Reducing shipping costs for shippers that manage global supply chains through direct intermodal rail service to/from the San Pedro seaports.
- Significantly reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions by reducing the number of truck trips from the seaports complex in the Los Angeles region to the Central Valley and the Bay Area.
- Reduce highway road congestion, with a parallel reduction in the requirement for road maintenance; accident-avoidance savings; all of this reduces cost.
A California Inland Port Feasibility Analysis report indicates emissions from fossil fuels would drop by 83 percent and greenhouse gases would plummet by 93 percent. Freight haulers do not have to read the fine print to understand this involves a shift away from traditional trucking to increased rail.
Sources: wsj.com, joc.com, intermodel.com
The freight will still need to be delivered by truck from rail yard.