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Re:Re: (erielack) Advance 100
Most major box or reefer traffic moved in assigned cars with little or no chance of a backhaul. The shipper didn't want it if it delayed the return of the car for the next load or if it polluted the car for that next load. Foodstuffs were especially sensitive to both timing and cleanliness.
An assigned car was stenciled something along the lines of:
WHEN EMPTY RETURN TO AGENT GM&O INDEPENDENCE MO VIA REVERSE ROUTE
Shippers traced their assigned fleet in both directions. If they found a car, empty or loaded, off route, or even loaded on route, the railroad's sales staff received an immediate phone call reminding them that, one wayor another, there were other carriers who would love to participate in the traffic.
Shippers even counted the pallets which carried the load and expected them to return, in number if not actual identity, with the car. An illicit destination would either remove the pallets or replace the good, food-quality pallets with inferior and/or dirty ones at considerable replacement expense to the shipper.
Sometimes the shipper would have a return movement of compatible product for all or part of the route which would use the assigned car for convenience, but there was little rate advantage, so most cars ran empty half the time. Identical cars of different shippers would pass each other, because anti-trust laws prohibited shippers from cooperating for lower costs unless those lower costs could be passed on to all competing shippers.
Randy Brown
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At 05:08 PM 10/11/06, Paul Brezicki wrote:
>The meat business was unprofitable for several reasons, etc., etc.
>EL was also constantly paying to replace meathooks that went missing at
>the consignees. The other big problem was the lack of backhaul for this
>exclusively eastbound traffic.
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