Logistics Report One Week Later, September 14, 2020

On Labor Day, September 7, 2020, this report about tracking / rail.

Follow-up: today, a must-read story -- west coast shippers can't book rail on BNSF and Union Pacific. Link here to ZeroHedge. 

A Northern California logistics consultant was unable to book containers on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) or Union Pacific (UP) railroads for the first week of September going to and from U.S. West Coast ports and Midwest destinations.

The consultant said, “I have been working in the industry for thirty years and I have never seen anything like this. It’s weird.”

The result is that importers of low value products being shipped by containers such as tee shirts would be at an economic disadvantage transporting containers by truck as opposed to by rail between U.S. West Coast ports and Midwest destinations, because of the higher cost.

The consultant explained that there is a huge shortage of rail capacity: “There are no rail cars and there are no chassis.”

The consultant, who is not identified, was contracted to research container rail bookings on the UP and BNSF to and from U.S. West Coast ports including:

• Los Angeles
• Long Beach
• Oakland
• Seattle

The result of the research was that: “The railroads will not take any bookings right now and so all the containers going to and from the West Coast to places such as Chicago and Memphis must go by truck.”

The consultant cited the following trucking rates per container as examples:

• Los Angeles/ Long Beach to Chicago: $7000.
• LA/LB to New Berlin, Wisconsin: $6,700.
• LA/LB to Nashville, Tennessee: $7,200.
• LA/LB to Dallas, Texas: $5000.
• LA/LB to Jacksonville, Florida: $8,800.