transportationreport INTERMODAL & TRUCKING
potential, according to Prince and Finkbiner, to convert
thousands of truckloads of produce—virtually all of which
are now handled by small, independent truckers—to the
rails. Intermodal currently has about a 2-percent share of
the nation’s produce traffic, according to Finkbiner.
“There are 30,000 perishables trailers a week moving off
the West Coast alone,” traveling over distances of up to
2,000 miles, that are in intermodal’s wheelhouse, said
Prince, who runs a Kansas City-based transport consultancy bearing his name.
OBSTACLES AHEAD
What both men also knew from the start, however, is that
such out-of-the-box thinking would be a tough sell with
intermodal executives, especially at a time when they are
doing just fine staying with what’s familiar. Today’s intermodal network is designed to move dry goods, and branching big-time into produce would mean cost and service
challenges that the rails aren’t accustomed to.
For one thing, railroads would need to expand their
infrastructure to go where the growing is, no easy or inexpensive feat for an industry that has traditionally marketed
a new service as a low-cost option to users. Finkbiner estimates that it would cost $40 million to establish service in
just one traffic lane.
Beyond the infrastructure expense, there is the cost of
specialized equipment. One refrigerated boxcar alone runs
about $270,000, according to Finkbiner. There would also
be the expense of fuel to run the train as well as to power
the refrigeration unit sitting in the well of a stack car.
GETTING THE RAILS ON BOARD
Of course, step one is persuading the railroads. While inter-
Tackling the heavy loads
As commodities go, PVC pipe and produce couldn’t be
more different. The one thing they have in common is
that their shipping presents vexing challenges for
intermodal service providers.
Historically, flat-deck freight has been too heavy
and dangerous to ride in intermodal containers.
Securing commodities like piping, steel coils, and aluminum for rail transport is difficult, and if done
improperly, could result in significant damage to
expensive materials. As a result, railroads have refused
to accept industrial freight for intermodal shipping,
leaving the market exclusively to specialized flatbed
truckers.
But that has changed. In the past year or so, five railroads—the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway
(BNSF), CSX Corp., Norfolk Southern Corp., Union
Pacific Corp., and Canadian Pacific Railway—have
begun hauling industrial commodities that in the past
would have moved by motor carrier. The catalyst has
been a new type of equipment that allows flatcar
freight to move in double-stack configuration.
Bailey, president of Boyd Bros. Transportation, a
Clayton, Ala.-based flatbed carrier, approached BNSF
seeking a cost-effective alternative to moving his customers’ shipments over the road. Like other trucking
executives, Bailey was being pressured by rising diesel
fuel costs, road congestion, driver shortages, and
increasing government regulation. And like many dry
van and reefer truckers before him, he looked to
intermodal for a solution.
In early 2010, BNSF connected Boyd with Raildecks
Intermodal, a Calgary, Alberta-based company that
spent years designing intermodal equipment to carry
flat-deck freight. Under the Raildecks prototype, a
container moves by truck to a shipper’s yard, where
the cargo is loaded and secured. The container is then
trucked to an intermodal yard, where loaders transfer
the equipment to a wellcar in double-stack formation.
Upon arrival by rail at destination, the container is
transferred to a chassis for final delivery by truck.
After five months of tinkering with the prototype to
fit its system and to allay concerns about load secure-ment, BNSF began a two-year pilot program in June
