Any money in intermodal?

It’s really too bad that Triple Crown Service went out of biz .
RoadRailer trains

they had the “roadrailers”
Normal dry vans with air ride , they had a tongue on the front and the train wheels slid under the back doors ,

I worked with them from 88 to 98 and it was a great experience.
The roadrailers had separate yards from
The RR containers .
at one point they had 14 yards all over the East and south and Midwest .

was great for me , they had all owner operators, and we got paid a combo of a daily rate , milage and stop pay .
Ran a 200 mile radius of the terminal
Back to the yard every night about10 PM

first picis one of their old trailers with the rear bumper welded , when in use the rear bumper hinges up so the rail wheels and tongue can attach

I used a cabover I picked up for next to nothing .

 

Triple Crown are all up into car parts. They have their own trailer row, which grants them priority service, at Ford-KC. They’re still rocking and rolling. Maybe, they were bought by someone?

 

I’m not in the loop
In years , so I don’t know what they are doing now , not much , is all I know since I see the old roadrailers with all
The rail stuff torched of
Car parts was always a big thing for them

The yard in KC and the one in Detroit are
The only two left I think

was sad to see roadrailers behind UPS trucks now with the rail stuff torched off .
Seemed like a great idea , but obviously it didn’t work out .

I quit when the work in the Atlanta yard started slowing down and they often
Times didn’t have enough loads to keep all the drivers busy .
And we had just had our first child and I wanted to be home more ,
I got a job on the maintenance staff at a hospital, and made nearly the same
Money working 8-5 MF

and then when Ford built a new plant in Brazil or somewhere and closed
The Atlanta assembly plant , triple crown was toast in Atlanta .
The Atlanta ford plant was
Half of their business , the Atlanta GM plant was some but not anything like ford .

 

There can be money in intermodal if you pull for a company that has direct shippers , their own chassis’s and don’t rob most of the rate. Most of the ports are swarmed by multi generational, third world immigrants who drive cheap trucks , like to stay very local , and will work cheap . This makes them prime candidates for predatory companies who will pay them very little , but to them it’s better than low wage labor jobs.

 

"RoadRailers" was a half baked idea that never got off the ground, pun intended. While they did have air ride, and tubeless tires, they were too heavy. We had a max weight of 46,000 and could never scale it with those trailers. If I remember, only certain companies pulled them, but once in a while, some made it into the pools( of trailers) . I don't think there are any "Z" vans left in intermodal.