Re:(erielack) LCL Traffic

["Janet & Randy Brown" <jananran_@_mymailstation.com>]

The railroads did not "shift LCL to forwarders."  The customers did.

Definitions are in order.

The railroads' customers were/are shippers.  The shipper pays the freight and dictates the mode of transportation.  The freight charge comes from the freight rate which is normally expressed in pennies per hundredweight.  If a shipper has enough stuff to fill a car, he gets a lower carload freight rate.  If he had less than a carload, he paid a higher less-than-carload (LCL) rate. For a while, railroads offered LCL service which included pickup and delivery.  

Freight forwarders lived on the difference between the carload rate they paid the railroad and the LCL rate thry charged thre customer.  Because their pickup and delivery costs were lower than the railroads', they could offer a lower overall rate.  Their service was better, also, because their cars moved as carloads, full or not.  A railroad LCL car might hang around for a while waiting to fill up; a forwarder's car went right away.

Erie didn't use any forwarders.  The forwarders used Erie; they were the customer.  The forwarder could use any railroad; he chose the one that gave him the best combination of rate and service. The railroads had to work to get and keep the traffic.

The era of the railroad-owned trailer was short.  Railroads learned that they were better off just being railroads and letting someone else do the trucking around and assembling of freight.

The customer -- forwarder or shipper -- made the change to TOFC, again based on the cost-and-service combination.

UPS, for example, is a carrier who assembles small shipments into trailer loads and then ships them by rail.  To the railroad, UPS is the shipper.

Details, details, details -- but legions of us made our living understanding and monitoring those details for the shippers who, in the end, paid the freight.

Randy Brown
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I have some questions about LCL for Jim and the group, but first a little background.

In the 1950's, RR's began shifting this unprofitable traffic to third parties, ie the freight forwarders and consolidators, who had less costly labor arrangements. These included companies like Acme and Clipper; Erie and then EL used Lifschultz Fast Freight and Clipper Carloading (and possibly others). In the 1960's this traffic largely shifted from boxcars to TOFC. By the 1970's EL was one of very few roads that still handled LCL in boxcars.

Here are my questions concerning this traffic in the 1970's:

1. Were other cities served besides NY and Chicago?
2. Was there an LCL station on the Jersey side, and if so, where?
    (Perhaps Pavonia?)
3. Westbound traffic was handled by NY-99; photos generally show a
    headend block of forwarder boxcars. Eastbound traffic supposedly
    went on NY-100; why do you not see these boxcars on photos of this train?
    (handled on the rear, perhaps?)
4. Finally, why did EL continue to handle some LCL this way long after other
    roads had shifted to TOFC?

Paul Brezicki


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