The tightening of the economy has created a surge to save transportation and shipping costs. More importers are choosing to ship freight via rail lines because rail transport is often times less expensive than trucking for long distances. But, in reality, this approach to save cost is doing the opposite. The increased congestion on the rail lines is causing freight delays throughout the supply chain which means shippers and importers are incurring additional costs. PITT OHIO can help you with transloading and truck drayage solutions that fit within your budget and decrease your time being delayed at the rail. Direct truck drayage from PITT OHIO is a solution importers trust.
We know the frustration you must feel when your freight is delayed on the rail lines. More and more importers try to save money with their transloading services by putting their containers on the rail lines, instead of arranging for standard direct truck drayage services or using a truckload shipping option from the port.
Congestion occurs on rail lines for a variety of reasons:
- Volumes may exceed capacity of a given line
- Intersecting lines may cause trains to be delayed while waiting for another train to pass
- Situations where crew members are unable to continue working due to operational and regulatory limitations, particularly when there is no replacement crew available to take over their duties.
- Unexpected external events such as weather or natural disaster
- Labor union strikes
Congestion at the railheads does not just cause delayed deliveries though. You can also incur demurrage and per diem costs similar to the coastal ports if your container sits at the railhead for too long upon arrival or you don’t return the container to the railhead within a certain amount of time. Imagine you are expecting your container to arrive at the rail head on Monday, but it is delayed. Its actual arrival is unknown because of congestion on the rail lines. This rail delay is further complicated by the truck transportation arrangements you made. You’ve arranged for the truck to retrieve the container on its expected arrival day of Monday, but when the container actually arrives 4 days later, you are not able to arrange for truck transportation, leaving your container to sit at the railhead. Insert demurrage fees.
With PITT OHIO, you have the option to avoid rail delays all together by transloading a shipment of imports via trucks. This is the best choice for more time-sensitive freight. We have various transloading facilities across the United States, including our own terminals – like Allentown, PA, Norristown, PA and Indianapolis, IN, just to name a few – where we can unload and devan containers, store products, and facilitate delivery appointments.
If your operation is set on using rail lines though, we can also transload once a container has arrived into the final rail spur. We offer importers the flexibility for what is best for your goods. Using rail for transloading is ideal when delays are at a minimum, storage space for the goods is limited, or the final destination is a far distance.
Rail transport is often less expensive than trucking for long distances. When your freight is not time sensitive, you can let it sit on the rail moving slowly through the supply chain. However, when congestion causes rail delays and subsequent costs from demurrage and per diem charges start adding up, call PITT OHIO. Importers choose PITT OHIO for cost-effective, strategic port and rail transloading and truck drayage services.
