Insights - March/April 2018 - 16

and we need port authorities to take a greater role in facilitating
[the availability of] cost-effective land for depot operations."
Mike Burton, president of C & K Trucking, identified a
different set of alternatives to address congestion-related
issues.
"We live and breathe productivity concerns every day," Burton
said. "We really don't have a lot of control over what terminals
are used or the operations there. It comes down to pricing."
"We can't speed up the process," he explained. "We end up
trying to charge more where we have to so we can make up for
the driver's lost time. We are really pushing our customers to
not go to the congested rail yards. We are saying we can't move
your freight effectively. You're creating demurrage and delays if

you go through congested rail yards."
To reduce drivers' time at the terminals, reservations must be
made, a driver needs to quickly grab a good chassis and billing
must be correct, he explained. That part of the process is the
same whether or not the terminal is congested.
As drivers naturally gravitate to less congested facilities,
truckers also are taking steps to avoid peak hour deliveries when
possible, or doing nighttime drop and hook moves in order to
have more flexibility.
"When you push the envelope, people are finding creative
solutions like creating drop lots and combining two trips,"
Burton said.

Drivers' Choice
Heller had a similar view. "In this day
and age of drayage constraints - fewer
drivers and trucks and more regulations -
drivers have a choice of where they want
to go," Heller said. "Processing drivers
through our terminals faster means they
can be more efficient and improve their
bottom line."
Other operating practices can make a
positive difference.
Ed DeNike, president of SSA
Containers, said appointment systems
are working well to spread out pickups,
particularly for imports. "Otherwise we
would have to accommodate 800 trucks
first thing in the morning, and nothing is
more frustrating for a trucker than waiting,"
he said.
Another SSA initiative is moving
container pickups to off-dock locations
where import boxes are mounted on
chassis. Off-dock locations near marine
terminals are open 24-7, enabling a trucker
to make a pickup in 15 minutes, he said.

Technology
Norfolk Southern offers ExpressNS,
a mobile app for check-in and out of
terminals, parking and box location data,
billing and electronic gate receipts. It
also has a feature for a driver to obtain
assistance if there are equipment issues.
At a landlocked NS Chicago facility,
the railroad created a box-stacking
program to maximize limited ground
space by using cranes outfitted with an
intelligent inventory management system
that includes GPS, scanning sensors and
optical character recognition cameras.
NS also has implemented an optimized
terminal control system, or OTCS.
BNSF has built RailPASS, a mobile
application with more than 25,000 users
added in just two years. It's designed to
expedite drivers' terminal experience with
16 Intermodal Insights | March/April 2018
http://www.flexivan.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Insights - March/April 2018
