off the railroad ??

[MaceFremonti]

Where I am the bottom 20 drivers on our Q-List all have seniority dates of 2014......

 

[feeder05]

In Washington State we have been hiring backups all year and will continue after the New Year. They have been using Gypos to handle the rail between Spokane and Seattle and back. All of our backups are working and the Union has filed grievances on all work being handled by the Gypos. Looks like the rail's are not going to be fixed until next spring at the earliest. Some of our preload rails are coming through Portland. The company looked at using sleeper teams for east-west rails but was not cost effective.

 

[rams]

No I haven't checked, I've heard rumors. When did you hear they were putting on 40 feeders? I hope it's not to late, I will apply.

 

[MaceFremonti]

It has begun......

Until further notice....all of our loads that have previously gone to the Pittsburgh railyard now will go to NEWPA where contractors will take them west.....

 

[UPS4Life]

Has anybody seen more sleeper runs posted because of the rail, or even relay runs for this matter? We are moving more on the ground but no new jobs posted yet.


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[bigearl]

Does anyone know if CACH will be hiring Feeders drivers in January to help with what is pulled off the rails?

 

[Galaxy45MP]

CACH has 2 gigantic signs advertising for permanent Class A CDL drivers out front of the property facing I 294. They have been there since summer. I noticed last week they were covered with tarps though. But I can tell you that the signs also said to apply at the company web site. So maybe after peak, keep checking the website to see if the are taking apps. I am not domiciled at CACH, but I run there every night. The scuttlebutt was that they were looking to hire 250 drivers. I kinda doubt they got that many trained in less than 6 months.

 

[MoarTape]

Word has it NewPA is looking to add 50 more drivers this coming year. We're already up to 230 or so plus the 20 casuals we currently have. We didn't see a single new run in 2014. Have been at 130 runs for some time now (when they don't cut 10 or so for a few months).

 

[govols019]

Oakhaven has a bid sheet up for 54 feeder positions.

 

[MaceFremonti]

Ton of our runs deal strictly with the rails, PGHRR, NSRMD, Harrisburg, Philly etc....going to be interesting to see what happens in the next few weeks. Management is claiming complete ignorance....

 

[clean hairy]

This is why some Hubs have added more parking and we see substantially more trailers than ever before?

 

[bigearl]

Thanks, I will be watching website

 

[MaceFremonti]

Any word from the FNN on this? All is quiet and business as usual with the rails here on the East coast.

 

[teamster776]

A few of us asked about this last week. Manager said the majority will be coming off the rail, but not all.
He explained the reasons were bottlenecks, cars regularly stuck in ohio for a day to chicago or harpa. He didn't say it, but It sounded like we lost priority status on rail. He also said we will be relaying the loads through hubs and meet and turns.
Also confirmed they are hiring 30 to 50 FT feeders in harpa on top of the 50 that were just hired. They will begin hiring process after Jan 1st with new hires starting in Feb through at least march.
I think loads coming off the rail will be a gradual process.

 

[MoarTape]

I heard they want to add another 50 in NewPa also. We have 230 drivers now 130 runs. They better be planning something, otherwise a good chunk of those drivers will only be working during peak..

 

[pickup]

I've noticed quite a few more relay loads than in recent years. I've handled a few of them myself . I take them to hubs 200 miles down the road ,take lunch and see someone hooked up to them , ready to continue the journey. Loads that used to go on the railroad. I also see it when I shift. A lot of dropped sets (doubles) and another guy eventually hooks up and goes. Just to confirm my suspicion. I use the search function on the computer in the shifter to see where they came from and where they are going.

As the guy (TEAMSTER776) said above me, gradually we will be coming off the railroads , not completely though.

 

[barnyard]

My understanding is that the majority of BNSF and NS contracts expire in January. I cannot remember if it is the 5th or 15th. BNSF is not running Z trains anymore and not guaranteeing transit times. Transit guarantees were the reason the UPS paid a premium for Z trains. UP and BNSF both had shooters that were named after UPS transportation managers.

The railroads make so much more money moving oil that they are not interested in moving trains that require tight schedules.

It is possible that UPS will still move trailers on trains when the transit includes a weekend (2 free days of travel), but from what I have seen BNSF cannot maintain a schedule even with 2 free days.

 

[AKCoverMan]

BNSF spending quite a bit on the old Great Northen mainline thru North Dakota hat handles so much of the oil shale traffic. Double tracking sections and adding sidings.

 

[Mugarolla]

My understanding is that the majority of BNSF and NS contracts expire in January. I cannot remember if it is the 5th or 15th. BNSF is not running Z trains anymore and not guaranteeing transit times. Transit guarantees were the reason the UPS paid a premium for Z trains. UP and BNSF both had shooters that were named after UPS transportation managers.

The railroads make so much more money moving oil that they are not interested in moving trains that require tight schedules.

It is possible that UPS will still move trailers on trains when the transit includes a weekend (2 free days of travel), but from what I have seen BNSF cannot maintain a schedule even with 2 free days.

15th

 

[barnyard]

BNSF spending quite a bit on the old Great Northen mainline thru North Dakota hat handles so much of the oil shale traffic. Double tracking sections and adding sidings.

Does not matter. They will still not be able to maintain a Z train schedule from Mpls to Seattle. Railway Age did an article and had quotes from a guy whose business closed because he could not do a 4 day schedule from Spokane to Chicago. There were other quotes from trucking companies that said what used to take 4 days was taking 9-11 days.

Swift, Schneider and other OTR companies put most of their coast to coast trailers on trains. Their people were quoted as saying that transit times have more than doubled and they were not able to hire enough drivers to pull their trailers off.

During that entire time that BNSF was killing off Z trains, their financial reports stated that income and net income were both up. No point running a hot train if a slow moving oil train will pay the same money.

Railroads have spent the past 20 years trying to compete against truck traffic by hauling trailers on fast schedules. From the outside, it appears that railroads found a new profit center and it does not include trailers. Trailers will still move on rails, but only if they are not in any hurry to get anywhere.