FedEx Freight | railroad

[undercover]

I do not think we have to worry about the fedex ground model taking our jobs,we should be focused on the railroad.did you know warren buffet owns bnsf and in the last 2 years has pumped massive money into the railroad.forecasters say that in the next 10 years there will be 40%less trucks on the roads due to this rail push.did you know that the ceo and president of bnsf are both ex fedex employees.

The rail gets a major refund for any fuel excise tax they pay.rail is not taxed near as hard as trucking and can operate at much lower cost ie;less permits,no road tax,2 employees to move the same freight as over 400 truck drivers,no permits to run into different states,no weight limits,less dot mandates.we as drivers are at a disadvantage to compete with the rail for our jobs.the government(us) subsidise the rail so with our own tax money we are helping to do away with our own jobs.i myself i have written congress to explain that it is unfair that rails are not bearing the tax and saftey burden that the trucking industry does and that with the breaks the rail gets i forsee fedex adding about 50% of its workforce to the unemployeement numbers.

We are up against the tree huggers,saftey groups,fedex(profits) and warren buffet.if you want to save our jobs call congress and get them to tax and put saftey regs on the rail the same as trucking have to adhere to.i know fedex makes a profit on fuel surcharges,through my research i have not found if they will still charge the customer a fuel surcharge for the miles the freight in on a train? if they do that is criminal.

I have been in the trucking industry since 1976 and remember seeing jb hunt,roadway and a few more all over the highway now all you see is few of these companies on the road and most of their trailers on the rail.this is our future unless we fight,the govt needs money. tell them to tax the rails the same as trucks are.if we loose and you are not a shuttle,city,contractor or to the rail driver or not in the top 10% of your board you will be no longer be a fedex driver.

 

[blue4242]

You are not telling us anything that is not already known. Bill Logue has spoken about this about a year ago.

 

[HILLBILLY]

Instead of raising taxes, why not reduce trucking.

 

[Matt]

I'm not worried about trains too much. How many super railways are out there ? I'm not sure to what capacity the rails are running at but how much freight can the rails really handle ?
Right now anyone who provides transportation is fighting over crumbs like rats. Just a few short years ago we could tell customers no. Years ago we could "re-educate" customers nowadays we are the ones "re-educating"
I believe the path to success is getting back to the basics. Providing a service at a good price with service at the front. The economy being :: will bring many things back around to where they should be.
It will take time to sort threw for these trucking companies but it will happen or they will fail

 

[lucy11]

when you go to the rail to get your load you will get reeducated just like the military hurry up and wait

 

[suzy1052]

Why dont the powers that be just roll out the Star Trek type transporter beam's and get it over with so we can all move on.Dont forget to have your empty skids beamed back ! In all seriousness while the R.R. may take a bite out of trucking I think when the economy bounces back shippers aint gonna sit still for long while thier product sits on a siding somewhere for an extra week.After the railroad's screw em long enough with unkept promises they'll be back.The rail infrastructure is already clogged and overburdened as it is and any promises to increase capacity is just a flat out lie to get business.

 

[Phantom 309]

It's all based on crude oil prices.

Diesel trains an inherently more efficient than trucks or cars. A train gets about 100 miles per gallon per ton whereas a semi gets 10 miles per gallon for the same payload. When used for transporting passengers instead of freight the difference even increases: 468 passenger-miles per gallon for trains versus 30 for a compact car. Trains do not have to stop and go, there is less friction on rails and this makes them very efficient. As Diesel becomes more expensive, this 10 fold difference in freight efficiency and operating costs will fast become the determining factor favoring trains over trucks.

Cost of Freight Transportation by mode
Mode Cost
(cents per ton mile)
Air 82
Truck 26
Rail 2.9
Barge 0.72
(good thing we don't have more major waterways in this country 'cause the barges kick everybody's a$$.)

But I don't think Warren Buffet is focused so much on LTL freight as he is coal hauling. Trains are perfect for that type of work. bulk shipments that can't be damaged.
And like BeerBoy pointed out, R.R. has a limited capacity. Yea they're always gonna pull some intermodel trailers, cars, lumber etc. but coal is the big deal to them....

Buffett sees lots of coal in the US future
In the US, Coal is, predominantly, moved from the mine to power station by rail, thus coal accounted for about 44 percent of the total tonnage moved by rail, which also contributed to about 21 percent of the gross revenue (last year). Doesn't that come under emission too? Not really, Coal helps to relieve the dependency on crude oil imports as the US has the world's largest recoverable coal reserves. In spite of coal's role as one of the most pollutants of the fossil fuels because of its high carbon dioxide emissions, new technologies like CCS (carbon capture and storage) and IGCC (Integrated Gasification and Combined-Cycle) generation help to curb the emissions. Well, the technologies aren't just new jargon. A new 'zero-emission' power plant using CCS and IGCS is expected to be fully operational by 2016. Coal is on-big time.

Did Buffett buy Railways because of Peak Oil?

 

[blue4242]

I know that nobody wants to hear this, but we will continue to lose freight (mostly economy) to the railroads in ever increasing numbers for years to come. If you are in an economy hub, you will be mostly affected by this trend, but the decline in freight moved by our trucks should be offset, in part, by the increasing tonnage that the economy side is gaining. Railroad is not a recent enemy to truck drivers, throughout trucking history there has been a "tug of war" if you will with trucking and the railroad. Before the interstates and deregulation, rail used to run directly into manufacturing plants, then that changed and trucking had a one up, but now we are starting to see that trend change back to the railroads. Even JB hunt has in recent years been more rail oriented.

 

[LTL MAN]

I would not worry too much. I remember back in 1994 Yellow at the time had a big push to put more on the rail.Service were told was better it was cheaper. Funny thing is that freight is the lowest priority on a railroad. So grain (wheat, corn oats and coal and oil all have priority . Also the rail is not building any more tracks either. All the rail is used for out West is to reposition empty equipment throughout the network.

 

[outerlimits]

I would not worry too much. I remember back in 1994 Yellow at the time had a big push to put more on the rail.Service were told was better it was cheaper. Funny thing is that freight is the lowest priority on a railroad. So grain (wheat, corn oats and coal and oil all have priority . Also the rail is not building any more tracks either. All the rail is used for out West is to reposition empty equipment throughout the network.

Nice ! Contractors pull the freight and trains bring back the empty equipment, looks to me like some should worry.

 

[HILLBILLY]

I would not worry too much. I remember back in 1994 Yellow at the time had a big push to put more on the rail.Service were told was better it was cheaper. Funny thing is that freight is the lowest priority on a railroad. So grain (wheat, corn oats and coal and oil all have priority . Also the rail is not building any more tracks either. All the rail is used for out West is to reposition empty equipment throughout the network.

They are expanding and updating the rail head in STL. Also I believe building a new head in TOL. Building a new one in the north east.

 

[Jeff]

 

[POPCORN]

I would not worry too much. I remember back in 1994 Yellow at the time had a big push to put more on the rail.Service were told was better it was cheaper. Funny thing is that freight is the lowest priority on a railroad. So grain (wheat, corn oats and coal and oil all have priority . Also the rail is not building any more tracks either. All the rail is used for out West is to reposition empty equipment throughout the network.

This is a new world compared to 1994. Fedex was not in the trucking business or LTL in 1994. I believe that if a Railroad (BNSF) thanks Mr. Buffett... is willing to sign a Service Contract that guarantees Service Standards. Then Fedex (FS) oh, by the way... good friends of the Obama administration, just like Buffett. We will see a LARGE part of LINEHAUL disappear forever. Thank You Mr. President, Sec.Lahood and other formerly mentioned business leaders for playing ball with the Marxists.

 

[Matt]

Well you about got everyone. What about Bill Gates, the Walmart clan, and that Apple fella. Might as well throw them in with our linehaul system that's changing but really there is not a huge massive shakeup just some tweaking but it's the end of time I forgot.

 

[POPCORN]

Well you about got everyone. What about Bill Gates, the Walmart clan, and that Apple fella. Might as well throw them in with our linehaul system that's changing but really there is not a huge massive shakeup just some tweaking but it's the end of time I forgot.

That is the easy reply. I know it sounds funny don't it? I hope you are still laughing after December. When Priority is shaken up that will be quite interesting. Remember I was told by an old timer that I trust... you won't recognize the Road Board by the end of 2011. We aren't there yet, are we?

 

[Daywalker]

I think beerboy was trying to convince himself that this is just a little tweaking, and like popcorn senior drivers are saying the same thing you are hearing

 

[fdxlies]

Beerblab, all you do is run your mouth. Anybody with over 3500 posts maybe should think about shutting the hell up for a while. You will have plenty of time to talk later, it's not the end of the world.

 

[babyface]

Economy freight can still only be as slow as service standards allow for. It still takes time to run trailers to the rail yard and setup a load to go point-to-point and make the window for it to make service. If economy freight is considered 3-day in-between say, Greensboro,NC and Atlanta that seems to be reasonable for rail to work. There's fewer places it will be able to be done, and it's still only on economy freight. If this affects anything it'll be the customer centers designated as true economy hubs. It will change the logistics of where the freight is moving in from, and through those centers. The road drivers will have the biggest threat of having runs changed and cancelled. I'd set a guess of as large as 25-30% of runs changing at a newly formed economy hub. Possibly 10% of drivers not having a run at all anymore. There's going to be alot of jobs moved around because of it. And there's nothing you can do to stop it. Don't think for a second that any freight imbalances between farther out areas, say CHI to ATL won't have the possibility of having more outside carriers running that freight too. Fedex has a responsibility to profitability and it's shareholders. Anything they can do to maximize that bottom dollar that they can think of will be thought of, tested, tried, and put into place. I picture rail and outside carriers being up to 25% of all (economy) freight movement within 5 years. They've already made the decisions and it's set into motion. Even the union can't save you now. Welcome to big business in America in 2011.

 

[Chevy silverado]

Why does everyone sound like varnco on this mo fo. But I guess he was right

 

[Guardrail]

Varnco was not right. His main mantra was Freight going the Ground way, all contractors. You guys seem to have a very short attention span.