Fed EX Ltl on rail

vango · Jan 13, 2008

Going through Texas last week,saw many Fed ex national Ltl trailers on a train heading west, near Amarillo.I hope these are not "expedite loads" ,that a year ago would have been on "custom critical trucks.

arkjarhead · Jan 13, 2008

I don't think rail is the fastest way to move freight. I could be wrong, but I don't think having to truck it to a rail yard, then it sits waiting to get on the train, moves to the next rail yard, sits and waits on a truck, and then finally trucked to the consignee is quicker than ground expedite. I don't think you have much to worry about.

Moot · Jan 13, 2008

Most if not all national LTL companies use rail for coast to coast or midwest to coast freight. Many use their own company marked trailers while others use containers or ship through a TL carrier.

greg334 · Jan 13, 2008

Hybrid transportation is one thing that FedEx is shifting to in order to drop operating cost. Rail can be almost as quick as a truck traveling across the country and with shipments that are not time critical (meaning we will get it to you in 6 days opposed to 5 days and save you 10%), rail offers some better solutions.

Don't forget, that before there was trucks, there was entire industry that could get packages from point to point as quick as possible.

Even though rail seems a slow way of getting there, they have several advantages over a truck, like how much the cost per mile works out to when you look at the weight carried and how they don't have to put up with congestion and highway delays.

RichM · Jan 13, 2008

Many of those trains run extremly fast rigid schedules. I have seen the Union Pacific doing about 80, going faster then highyway traffic on I 10 . My wife has a cousin who runs for CSX and he told me premium rail ltl shipment trains can usually match truck tranist times from city to city. Then the delay is getting the trailer off loaded and sent to it's final destination.

bluejaybee · Jan 13, 2008

Also, Fed-Ex, UPS and some other biggies use rail to return empty trailers to areas that don't have much return freight. This option in my opinon, does save them money on returning empties.

bjb