Possibly Phasing Out OTR Trucking?

intermodal is getting alot of loads, i pick up west coast loads out of nc. and loads going to all destinations to put on the rail.

 

Simply stating my opinion here but I'd say not in any of our lifetimes. Cost is the contributing factor.

Rail is to costly. It would require railroads to increase their lines, distribution and warehousing networks. The cost of new rail lines alone would be hard to justify. The cost of the land, right of way, legal fees. In most cases, like the oil pipelines, it would take an act of congress and use of eminent domain.

Then we have the increase of Regional Trucking Lines. I don't think this would happen in our free market economy either. In order for the total ending of OTR trucking it would require federal or state governments to give exclusive operating authority to specific carriers in each region. Much like the regional operating authority for your electric company. You usually only have 1 choice. Carrier A would take the product and drop it off at Carrier B. Carrier B to Carrier C and so on until product made its way to the consumer. This would seriously hinder produce and Just In Time operations as well as increase the likelihood of lost loads and be a tracking nightmare for most customers and carriers.

As a customer, if I can load my product on 1 trailer in CA with one trucker responsible for its safety, and ensure that it gets to my customer on the east coast in 2-3 days at a cost effective, 1 price, one billing trucking company, I'd do it every time. To have to worry about tracking my load over several carriers, paying each of them, well, you get the point.

Don't think it will ever happen.

 

I may be wrong but I'd argue that intermodal is mostly imported goods shipping from, in your case (NC), from Europe destined for west coast markets. Same with intermodal going the other way coming from china. To do intermodal for American made goods would be incredibly hard to do.

 

You would be 100% wrong. Intermodal containers in ports,yes. Intermodal containers in rail yards run from coast to coast, north to south, from US city to US city. Loads are picked up at many US manufacturers and they put them on the rail to go somewhere else in the US. I did rail for a while and not one time did I ever pick up a HUB container that was destined for anywhere else but in the good ol' USA from the good ol' USA.

 

I think interstate drones are far closer to being a reality than many would think, and probably the most threatening to driver pay. Interstates could add a drone lane on the left, much like a HOV lane. Drone transfer yards could be set up along the way, maybe in the median where space is available.

Experimentation would probably start in western flat areas that have the space to accommodate an extra lane.

This would affect every driver in the industry, as thousands would be seeking work in local and regional areas, which would in turn reduce demand for drivers, which would drive pay scales down.

What could delay this, is the govt, much like the construction industry. I'm pretty sure we could build roads that last longer, but how many people would that put out of work?

 

I agree. I used to pull loads off the rails, international shipments were about 10% of what I hauled. Tires, scrap metal, auto parts, scrap paper, etc, all crossing the country by rail.

 

Well, aside for the science fiction idea, one of the reasons we are not likely to see an end to OTR is because of the JIT service. That is just something you can't get from a railroad.

Now to the science fiction idea, drones might actually be a possibility, but since I'm already a retired old fart, I don't expect to live to see it happen. I'm more in line with the idea of "teleporting" though. Now if that could be developed, what changes we would see!

 

See "3d printing" not quite teleportation, but a similar concept in the infant stage!

 

Take the OP's reference to the Pony Express and moderrnize it for the JIT loads, instead of a team running long distances have a group of teams running segments of the run , utilize / maximize their allowable hours switch the trailer and away it goes with a fresh team.