Canadian Railroads > CP to close Obico Container Terminal

Further to a rumour posted here last week, CP said it will close the Etobicoke Ontario terminal Obico in November.

Operations will be consolidated to the Vaughan facility where it operates 24-7; with more modern equipment and capacity to handle increased volumes. Obico has older equipment and less room, and is not open 24-7.

Hunter Harrison sent out a circular to CP staff in Canada that he is going out on a three week tour of facilities, focusing on the main yards, and also meeting as many officers and employees as he can.

He notes that there has been much apprehension regarding his appointment as CEO and he wants to reassure the staff that he will attempt to form a team spirit to accomplish his goals at CP.

He has signed a four year contract with the CP Board of Directors.

I'm assuming that it is similar to the deal he had with CN. "Pay me $xxxx per year, and you can fire me any time you want".

The employment agreement will probably be filed with the securities regulators in the next few weeks. These documents are always fun to read, esp the stuff that isn't there.

Like "Mr X will be required to use secure transport when traveling on company and personal business" (private jet, company driver, even on vacation, etc) or "Mr X will be required to maintain secure communications contact with the company's administrative hub at all times" (phones will be of the latest encrypted design, home will be regularly swept for eavesdropping) etc.

A well placed threat or two is often considered justification for extensive company paid security and private jets. There are enough crazies out there who will do stupid stuff

wonder if CP will get him a Canadair Challenger jet like he used at CN...

C-GCNR seen here: http://www.myaviation.net/search/photo_search.php?id=01735959&size=large

wonder if ant train crews got to deadhead on it;)- likely not as EHH ran up 1.5 million in travel costs during 2008-2009

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/investment-ideas/streetwise/cns-hunter-harrison-couldnt-he-just-take-the-train/article4310739/

xcnsnake Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> wonder if CP will get him a Canadair Challenger
> jet like he used at CN...
>
> C-GCNR seen here:
> http://www.myaviation.net/search/photo_search.php?
> id=01735959&size=large
>
> wonder if ant train crews got to deadhead on it;)-
> likely not as EHH ran up 1.5 million in travel
> costs during 2008-2009
>
> http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/inve
> stment-ideas/streetwise/cns-hunter-harrison-couldn
> t-he-just-take-the-train/article4310739/

perhaps they can call colleague Warren and get a deal on netjets ...

Not just Obico. He's closing the hump at Agincourt.

KG

kgmontreal Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Not just Obico. He's closing the hump at
> Agincourt.
>
> KG

In his notice to staff regarding touring the facilities, he talked about a minimum number of cars humped per shift required to keep the Aylth and Toronto humps active. He noted that as of now, they don't meet the threshold.

During his time at CN he closed and reopened hump yards several times.

eminence_grise Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In his notice to staff regarding touring the
> facilities, he talked about a minimum number of
> cars humped per shift required to keep the Aylth
> and Toronto humps active. He noted that as of now,
> they don't meet the threshold.

I was in Toronto for vacation a few weeks ago and I had the chance to watch some CP trains throughout the area. From what I saw, CP traffic was dominated by intermodal and autorack trains. Even the 200-series manifest freights had large blocks of autoracks in the consist. It just seemed that the traditional boxcar traffic paled in comparison to the intermodal and auto business. Now I'm not sure if CP sends loaded autoracks over the hump or not. Do they even need to? Are the autos blocked at Oshawa or Spence beforehand? If that's the case, it just didn't appear that they had a lot of boxcar traffic to justify the hump.

Andrew

xcnsnake Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> wonder if CP will get him a Canadair Challenger
> jet like he used at CN...
>
> C-GCNR seen here:
> http://www.myaviation.net/search/photo_search.php?
> id=01735959&size=large
>
> wonder if ant train crews got to deadhead on it;)-
> likely not as EHH ran up 1.5 million in travel
> costs during 2008-2009
>
> http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/inve
> stment-ideas/streetwise/cns-hunter-harrison-couldn
> t-he-just-take-the-train/article4310739/


Pretty stupid article. For a CEO of a company stretching from Prince Rupert to New Orleans to Halifax, travel on a jet instead of the train makes a whole lot of sense. I'd rather my CEO travel a lot and actual visit terminals/operations than rarely leave the home office. Of all the things to criticize EHH about, jet travel isn't one of them.

florida581 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> eminence_grise Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > In his notice to staff regarding touring the
> > facilities, he talked about a minimum number of
> > cars humped per shift required to keep the
> Aylth
> > and Toronto humps active. He noted that as of
> now,
> > they don't meet the threshold.
>
> I was in Toronto for vacation a few weeks ago and
> I had the chance to watch some CP trains
> throughout the area. From what I saw, CP traffic
> was dominated by intermodal and autorack trains.
> Even the 200-series manifest freights had large
> blocks of autoracks in the consist. It just
> seemed that the traditional boxcar traffic paled
> in comparison to the intermodal and auto business.
> Now I'm not sure if CP sends loaded autoracks
> over the hump or not. Do they even need to? Are
> the autos blocked at Oshawa or Spence beforehand?
> If that's the case, it just didn't appear that
> they had a lot of boxcar traffic to justify the
> hump.
>
> Andrew


Let's do some math...last week CP reported just over 50,000 total carloads - strip out intermodal: minus 20,472 ; coal loads were 6300 in total, most of which were probably unit trains; already you are at about 25,000 carloadings left, not including other energy unit trains, grain, sulphur, etc.. and you can see how the numbers dwindle. ( By comparison CN loaded 100,000 total carloads, double )

darkcloud Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> (snip)
>
>
> Pretty stupid article. For a CEO of a company
> stretching from Prince Rupert to New Orleans to
> Halifax, travel on a jet instead of the train
> makes a whole lot of sense. I'd rather my CEO
> travel a lot and actual visit terminals/operations
> than rarely leave the home office. Of all the
> things to criticize EHH about, jet travel isn't
> one of them.

Yes.

Many writers are still stuck in the 1950s, and apply the same standards to today's business.

One of my accounts was an investment company that handled a lot of midsize pension and VEBA programs for unions, employers, some municipal plans, etc. It wouldn't be unusual for them to visit places like Columbus OH, Dickinson ND, Grand Island NE, Bowling Green KY, Bend OR, and similar. With their factional deal on NetJets, they could get three people into the local airport, meet the clients, answer questions face to face, get back on the plane and go on to the next location.

It would take a month and cost a lot more to get three people into those places with connections in Dallas Denver Chicago Minneapolis, car rentals, overnight accommodations, etc. The firm was privately held, so they were effectively spending their own money...

One of my friends worked for a regional electric utility which used its two turbo props like buses in the 1990s. Carry four people from Morristown NJ to Lancaster PA (three hours by car or train, 40 minutes by air). Drop them, and the plane flies to Johnstown, PA, picks up a sales team and flies them to Cleveland. Picks up people in Cleveland, flies to Morristown by way of Lancaster where it grabs the morning people. You're home before dinner. What you save on gas reimbursements and hotel pays for the plane and then some.

If the info was available and it might be to investors of CN -It would be interesting to know the number of flights EHH took to Florida .

No CN but where his home is. Does that give a good return on investment ???? My guess is most of his flights went to that area.

Mike Bannon
St Catharines, ON

algoma11 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If the info was available and it might be to
> investors of CN -It would be interesting to know
> the number of flights EHH took to Florida .
>
> No CN but where his home is. Does that give a good
> return on investment ???? My guess is most of his
> flights went to that area.

In the US, private planes could be tracked via their N or tail numbers. Where they went, when they took off, etc. After investment sleuths began using these searches to divine upcoming mergers (by tracking corporate jets showing up in unexpected places), etc the feds agreed to "hide" certain data. I don't know if the Canadian government has similar practices.

The US requires that a corporate officer pay for (or be taxed as income on) the equivalent first class fare for personal travel on corporate jets, as well as the fare for any family members, etc. That's been tax policy (which applies to congress people flying on military planes, too) since the 1990s. For somebody like EHH, that's chicken feed for a ride home every weekend.

Hunter said he would not move to Montreal or learn to speak french when he was CEO of CN. In contrast he likes Calgary, and has talked of bringing his horses there.

That must be one big corporate jet to bring his horses too!

Did'nt know CP had a C5 in the hangar!

Mike Bannon
St Catharines, ON