![]() ![]() WSIs rail-served transload facilities also allow for buffer stock, in the case of shortages or damaged product. WSI material handlers know how to load and unload railcars of all types, including box, center beam, flat and hopper cars. TRANSLOAD EXPERTISEĪ 3PLs specific expertise in loading and unloading intermodal shipments is essential for mitigating damage to product railroads used to be notorious for manhandling and marring lumber and other construction materials. They do all the unloading and loading of trucks going out of our Allentown warehouse. If I were to put that on a truck, my line haul costs would be double, Kirkland says. He sends about four carloads a week, but those shipments can double during busier times of year. Now, with the help of WSI, Kirkland directs those movements onto a Norfolk Southern train for the 800- mile length of haul to its Allentown warehouse. He used to use truck service to move shingles from a manufacturing location in Hampton, GA, to its warehouse operated by WSI in Allentown. That was the appeal of the railroads for Alan Kirkland, the shipping manager for Atlas Roofing in Allentown, PA. You can take one train from Point A to Point B. Thats still a point of focus, and that service is still good. Those intermodal trains are treated by the railroads like unit trains, said Gene Loiselle, a WSI sales manager. The sheer amount of product that can fit into one railcar is three to four times that which can fit in a truck trailer, and the railcar in question uses four times less fuel than a big rig.įor instance, if a customer is shipping from Chicago to the Inland Empire east of Los Angeles on either a Thursday or Friday, an intermodal train will get there in time for Monday off-loading onto a local delivery or drayage truck. Intermodal options can be cost-competitive with trucking-only transport options, especially on certain days of the week. Intermodal shipping is often the most cost-effective and efficient method of transport, combining the speed of trucks with the fuel-saving economy of rail. Shippers frequently need both a truck and a train to get bulk products to market. Simply put, rail and trucking do not exist in their respective vacuums. During that same time period, according to the ATA, rail intermodal tonnage will grow 5.5 percent annually through 2019 and 5.1 percent a year through 2025. However, truckload carriers will make greater use of intermodal rail for intermediate- and long-distance hauls. is short 50,000 truckers as December 2017, truckload volumes rose 8.8 percent in January 2017 compared to January 2016, according to a report from the ATA.Īccording to the ATA, truckload volume will grow 3.5 percent a year through 2019, then 1.2 percent annually from 2020 to 2025. However, despite the American Trucking Associations (ATA) estimate that the U.S. The trucking industry continues to face ongoing difficulties to mitigate high driver turnover: federal hours of service rules, the high average age of the American truck driver, and low wages for long hours. STATE OF INTERMODALĢ018 looks to be a strong year for intermodal. This kind of unit-level detail offers customers peace of mind that their products are being tracked with just as much, if not more, accuracy than they would be on a smaller truck trailer. For example, our WMS provides our customers visibility of five individual SKUs of shingles, or exact details of lumber sizes in each railcar. Our sophisticated inventory systems, including a railcar-friendly Warehouse Management System (WMS), allow our customers visibility down to the unit level, similar to truckload and less-than- truckload shipments. WSI works with its customers to provide low-cost solutions, whether rail or truck, to get their product to wherever it is needed, at a low cost. WSI, one of North Americas largest privately owned 3PLs with rail-served facilities encompassing over 15 million square feet, transloads a wide variety of products: While oil industry freight expenditures have dried up, it is possible that decisions made by the current administration could renew activity. railroads have been over $110 billion the past four years. COST OF CONGESTION PER MILE OF INTERSTATE BY METRO AREAĪccording to the Association of American Railroads 2018 report, capital expenditures by U.S. Similarly, railroads continue to invest significant resources in their own infrastructure to balance the underinvestment by the government in our nations highways. In spite of the potential highway infrastructure investment ahead, rail will continue to compete with truck lines in many freight categories. Due to changing customer demands, like instant product distribution, a low tolerance for damage and the need for largely varied inventory in single railcars, 3PL-coordinated rail shipping is more attractive than ever. ![]()
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