Western Railroad Discussion > Union Pacific to fine truckers who are late or miss appointments

A great way to build a solid working relationship with other modes of transport.

https://cdllife.com/2019/union-pacific-to-fine-truckers-who-are-late-or-miss-appointments/

I hope the truckers/receivers will begin issuing fines to the railroad for any late deliveries of their shipments to destination terminals.


In reading comments on the article, some businesses already said they wont pay and will make other arrangements, and some drivers will refuse shipments to UP termials. There are already too many uncontrollable inputs such as traffic, weather, hours of service, road work, and delays at port/terminal gates.




Michael

That's sure sounds incredible. But after 3 decades+ in train service I can never just summarily dismiss out of hand anything I hear or read.
So... can anyone say: "Don't bite the hand that feeds you"??

Lance (1978 ~ 2010)

So I guess the UP's PSR program is going so well they want to set the standards for P S Trucking? 

Dick Samuels
O P R

No clean rest rooms, free coffee and donuts for truckers who are waiting for their loads to be dismounted from the railcars?

I'm shocked!

Good luck trying to collect. More loads than RR loads to haul

emd_mrs1 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> A great way to build a solid working relationship
> with other modes of transport.
>
> https://cdllife.com/2019/union-pacific-to-fine-tru
> ckers-who-are-late-or-miss-appointments/
>
> I hope the truckers/receivers will begin issuing
> fines to the railroad for any late deliveries of
> their shipments to destination terminals.
>
>
> In reading comments on the article, some
> businesses already said they wont pay and will
> make other arrangements, and some drivers will
> refuse shipments to UP termials. There are
> already too many uncontrollable inputs such as
> traffic, weather, hours of service, road work, and
> delays at port/terminal gates.
>
>
>
>
> Michael

Thats only part of the story. UP will also issue $100.00 credits for any shipment that ingates before the cutoff time but does not depart on the scheduled train.

To be fair both BNSF and UP have a consistent problem with containers and trailers not being picked up in a timely manner, either. Both railroads keep track of the guilty...

Some of this has to do with the usual increase in intermodal shipments during the late summer and fall. Last fall UP got hammered with too much business at its Chicago terminals, especially Global 4, resulting in some really late train arrivals due to G4 space limitations. I doubt UP wants to go through that again.

Allen

Posted from Android

Early on, in his CN days, Hunter Harrison experimented with time of week pricing for intermodal shipments. And, incentives for next available.  So, a Monday departure might cost a shipper less than a congested Thursday departure. Or, a discount if you would accept transport on the next available train, rather than a specific train.  I don't think that worked on a broad scale.

It does make sense to offer an incentive to a driver who ingates two hours or more before a train departure. Rather than having everybody pushing in at five minutes to witching hour.

What a bunch of cry babies. Did you even bother to READ the full information available?

IF you had bothered to read the information, this is what you would have learned:

• The appointment is for the DAY for the train in gate cutoff, not a time slot.
• The cut off time is the in-gate cut off time for the train the load is scheduled to be on.

Pretty clear cut common sense to me.

This is nothing different AFAIK than what the ports do for inbound loads to be put on a ship.

Locally, has the UP management seen the traffic and headaches getting from to and from the Oakland Terminal via 580 and surrounding freeways in the Bay Area?  This is not like I-29 in Council Bluffs.

Like everything else in the world there will be glitches which UP and their customers will work out. This is not exactly a 
new thing, the airlines have been "fining" travelers in various ways for years. When I ran a newpaper folks who didn't get their
copy in by deadline didn't get it printed.
I have found that people who are late are usually late - I worked for a couple of Members of Congress who were like that, believing they were too
important to be on time, like Bill Clinton holding up air traffic at LAX while he got hair cut or Congressman Barry Goldwater Jr. keeping we in Mojave
sitting in the sun for a postoffice dedication years ago.
Anyone who has worked shifts knows what it is like to wait for their relief to fnially stagger in.
I always leave about 15 minutes or more early for appointments so I can be on time even when we may have to wait for the person (or doctor!)
we are there to see.
As we all know, stuff happens and grownups can usually tell the difference between constant tardiness and unseen circumstances.
Which is why I take most of what I read here with a bucket of salt...
 

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

Ready to Work policy extends to truckers... gasp.

Posted from Android

Its a lot easier for a trucker to find other work than for the railroad.  This is going to get interesting.  Dan

The UP is just catching up.  Large warehouses have had fines for late deliveries going back decades.

Bob Wilcox
Charlottesville, VA
My Flickr Shots

bobwilcox Wrote:
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> The UP is just catching up.  Large warehouses
> have had fines for late deliveries going back
> decades.

You are so right my wife was a trucker and they had time slots, you missed yours guess what tough luck.  Now comes the next problem the trucker who was late to that one is probably going to be late for the next one too.  Nothing new here just something to have the usual TO blow up about the UP railroad.  Need to get out in the real world guys its been on the truckers for years to make there time slot in other areas. HO HUM