Non UPS Feeder trailers?
- Thread starter BrownEvo
- Start date
Hedley_Lamarr
Well-Known Member
XTRA LEASE trailers are rail pigs, and are owned by the rail road.
Big Babooba
Well-Known Member
It cost less to lease than to transport empty trailers. Some areas of the country get more trailers than they ship back. By leasing trailers, UPS is able to adjust to volume fluctuations in the system. For example, say NYC sends 7 trailers to LA. They could use 7 UPS trailers. If LA were to send 10 trailers back to NYC, they could send back those 7 trailers and 3 leased trailers. Once in NYC, they could send them elsewhere or dump them.
Then why do we inspect our grey boxes, but contract out the fstz/cfkz etc inspections?
And if they're all ours, why will the railyard mechanics fix the grey boxes, but not the fstzs?
If they're all ours, wouldn't they be treated the same?
bluehdmc
Well-Known Member
The tipz used to be referred to as 2 and a halfs. The way it was explained to me is UPS (or anyone else) didn't pay for rental of the trailer for 2 1/2 days. Figure if you pick up a box on Mon load and put it on a train Tues going to say Florida, gets there Thur, if your lucky it gets returned Fri. There 2 1/2 days free, 2 1/2 days rental. The thing is we were in competition with other trucking companies for them. There still are Tipz boxes in railyards. I think UPS just committed to a long term lease and a lot of them got relettered as fstx, cfkz, etc. Instead of remembering all the alphabet z's, the ones we use all start with 8xxxxx. Now we have pkgz's which are 53 footers. The registrations for the friend's, c's, etc. still say "transport international pool" , which is a division of GE capital.
It's probably all some sort of tax thing. There is a yard in Newark, NJ where we pickup a lot of railboxes before peak and return them afterward. Then the trailers just sit till the next year.
It's probably all some sort of tax thing. There is a yard in Newark, NJ where we pickup a lot of railboxes before peak and return them afterward. Then the trailers just sit till the next year.
JimJimmyJames
Big Time Feeder Driver
To those not familiar with railroad terminology, letters like FSTZ, CFKZ, etc. are reporting marks used to identify ownership of equipment used on railroads.
Marks that end in Z denote that the equipment is a trailer. Marks that end in U denote a container.
Since I am a railroad buff I have researched who owns the trailers associated with the reporting marks on our trailers. I have found that:
UPSZ; quite obviously UPS.
MARZ; Martrac, a UPS company.
FSTZ; Fastrac. I believe tieguy is correct in stating that UPS has ownership in this company.
SCSZ; Supply Chain Solutions. This sounds like another company we probably own.
CFKZ; XTRA. This is interesting because this is the only reporting mark that seems to be obviously owned by another company.
PKGZ; The only information I have found is that it is owned by TIP. You would think that we would own it since pkgz seems like an obvious abbreviation for package. And when I think package I think UPS
.I think bluehdmc is on to something when he states that we are probably into long term leasing arrangements on some of these trailers. TIP and XTRA would most likely be our partners in these arrangements since they are huge leasing companies.
I also think tieguy is correct in that the railroads have for the most part got out of the trailer leasing business. Though they do lease container/chassis to us on occasion as the CSX boxes I see in our yards attest to.
dragracer66
Well-Known Member
We do all the inspections and repairs on the fstz and cfkz trailers. If a gray box is broke at the rail yard they are allowed to repair them to get them going....
Ahh, an answer from someone who knows!
So the railyard mechanics won't work on the fstzs etc cuz they're owned by someone else (even tho UPS may own that company).
I have had grey boxes fixed at the railyard, but if you have a problem with a fstz etc, a UPS mechanic has to come out to fix it.
Saw a long long freight train the other day and 80% of the trailers were UPS. Going from west to east, my guess is CACH was the destination hub.
UPS is the biggest customer of TOFC with the rails, and JB Hunt was the second largest customer, although I hardly see anymore of their trailers on the rails or the roads.
UPS is the biggest customer of TOFC with the rails, and JB Hunt was the second largest customer, although I hardly see anymore of their trailers on the rails or the roads.
bubsdad
"Hang in there!"
At the Toledo rail the mechanics won't touch any trailer that has UPS freight on it unless they get permission from UPS. Went to get one and it had no crank handle. The rail guys wouldn't let me use one until calls were made and permission was given. 30 minutes and about 4 calls was all it took. Seems somewhat inefficient.
diesel96
Well-Known Member
To those not familiar with railroad terminology, letters like FSTZ, CFKZ, etc. are reporting marks used to identify ownership of equipment used on railroads.
Marks that end in Z denote that the equipment is a trailer. Marks that end in U denote a container.
Since I am a railroad buff I have researched who owns the trailers associated with the reporting marks on our trailers. I have found that:
UPSZ; quite obviously UPS.
MARZ; Martrac, a UPS company.
FSTZ; Fastrac. I believe tieguy is correct in stating that UPS has ownership in this company.
SCSZ; Supply Chain Solutions. This sounds like another company we probably own.
CFKZ; XTRA. This is interesting because this is the only reporting mark that seems to be obviously owned by another company.
PKGZ; The only information I have found is that it is owned by TIP. You would think that we would own it since pkgz seems like an obvious abbreviation for package. And when I think package I think UPS
I think bluehdmc is on to something when he states that we are probably into long term leasing arrangements on some of these trailers. TIP and XTRA would most likely be our partners in these arrangements since they are huge leasing companies.
I also think tieguy is correct in that the railroads have for the most part got out of the trailer leasing business. Though they do lease container/chassis to us on occasion as the CSX boxes I see in our yards attest to.
Good info their JJ.....
Down in the deep south (Fla) we still get plenty of FEC (Fla East Coast) leased trailers. When we "kill a FEC railbox", they must be cleaned and swepted out. Many of us have brooms in our cabs if unload has been bad.
We also handle EMHU 53ft containers from the railyard that we are responsible to lock and tie strap to the chasis before leaving the yard.
Anybody no the story behind these EMHU mamouth beasts ?
Many of these containers say "Hyundai"....Korean made ?
JimJimmyJames
Big Time Feeder Driver
"EMP is a domestic interline container service offered by Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern. Also included in the EMP program are agent railroads such as Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern. EMP provides a fleet of nearly 30,000 domestic containers and chassis. Intermodal customers have the flexibility to use this fleet in dedicated assigned service or on a free-running, as needed basis."
"Hyundai Merchant Marine is a South Korean logistics company providing worldwide container shipping services."
"Hyundai Merchant Marine is a South Korean logistics company providing worldwide container shipping services."
MWKFreightDave
New Member
FSTZ is Fastrac Leasing, a collaboration between UPS and Stoughton Trailers. The white FSTU containers are also owned by them and leased to UPS long term.
Old International
Now driving a Sterling
Pleasantdale hub in Atlanta is chock full of the EMP's. The Columbia Sc hub had to go out and rent some 48's because Greensboro is sucking up all of our Grey long boxes. Some of the 600,000 series containers were leased from GE Capital, but UPS went back and purchased them from GE when GE needed money. THe GE's have the UPSZ before the number, and this is being removed as the TRLs cycle thru the 1 year inspections.
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