PEAK OIL - EPOCHAL EVENT OF OUR LIVES

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RAILROADS VERSUS TRUCKING

Review this link by Livonia, Avon & Lakeville Railroad.
It provides pertinent information about rail transportation, which will grow in importance under a Peak Oil scenario, as railroads are three times more fuel-efficient than truck.

http://www.lalrr.com/faq.html#considerrail

Some frequently asked questions about the economics of using rail for shipping include:

"When should I consider using rail?"

In recent years, trucking economics have been hammered by steeply rising insurance costs, higher fuel prices, regulations mandating expensive changes in truck diesel engine design and maintenance practices, and regulations governing the hours of service that truck drivers may legally work. While railroads are also paying higher insurance, fuel, and regulatory costs, they have not been affected as severely. Because railroads are three times more fuel-efficient than truck, for example, higher fuel prices have less of an impact.

This increase in rail's economic advantage has been coupled with steady improvements in the reliability and speed of rail service. Accordingly, many shippers are finding that rail can cut their supply chain costs significantly. The advantages are greatest for:

Long hauls -- 500 miles and over (but many shorter hauls work!)

Dense freight -- would weigh out a truck before it cubes out

"Balloon" freight -- would cube out a truck before it weighs out

Movements which would stress the available supply of truck trailers and/or drivers

As motor carriers become more aggressive about penalizing shippers and receivers who delay their drivers and equipment, many customers value the convenience of loading or unloading freight cars on their own schedule, instead of the truck driver's. Also, when truck dock space and parking are limited, rail allows them to handle more business.

Rail is less advantageous when the transit time must be equivalent to truck, when the service must be just-in-time (i.e., no buffer stock), or when the routing includes competing railroads.

"When should I consider using multimodal services?"

"Multimodal" refers to combined rail/highway transportation. Many bulk commodities can be unloaded from a rail car to truck for final delivery. Bulk commodities handled this way include sugar, grain, liquid and dry bulk fertilizer, chemicals, cement, and plastic pellets among others. Multimodal also includes various warehousing options where the product arrives by rail and is delivered to the end-user by truck. Commodities include steel, lumber, and paper.

Because the rail car typically holds 100-110 tons of payload vs. truck capacity of 20-25 tons, using rail for the long haul offers substantial savings in transportation cost. Vendors of some commodities also offer a lower unit price for purchases in larger quantities. Multimodal may be attractive if your facility is not located on our railroad or you need offsite inventory storage. Some commodities can be held in rail cars and drawn down as you need them.

LAL and its subsidiary railroads offer multimodal services ranging from simple team tracks (public-use sidetracks) to product quantity and temperature reporting, heating, and other enhancements. Customer-operated facilities on our rail lines offer additional commodity-specific multimodal capabilities. LAL can recommend a motor carrier to make final delivery, or you are free to utilize any qualified motor carrier.