Customers generally will not pay large premiums for expedited service, but may pay a small extra amount. When I buy through catalogs or on the internet, 'standard shipping' is usually sufficient - 3 to 5 days, generally by U.S.P.S. or U.P.S. It's just not worth $10, but it might be worth $1 for a CD or DVD. Merchandise is exposed to damage, theft, etc, while in transit. The sooner it arrives, the sooner that exposure ends, which can be a factor for some products. For many shippers, SPEED isn't as important as CONSISTENCY. An auto assembly plant using just-in-time practices can work with longer transit time if the parts arrive when they are needed, neither very early nor late. Consistently ON TIME is much more important than FAST, in fact they don't want early because they have no place to put early shipments. - --- Paul Brezicki <doctorpb_@_bellsouth.net> wrote: > This is correct, not all intermodal traffic is time-sensitive, in > fact apparently, most of it isn't. But the important thing is that > most of the truck market is time-sensitive, and the rail share of > domestic merchandise traffic continues to be small. Speaking of > UPS, this carrier recently de-emphasized rail movement in numerous > eastern markets in the interest of shaving a day off transit times, > no doubt in response to competition from RPS and others who don't > use rail. Even if your freight isn't time-sensitive, speedy > handling is usually the least expensive when looking at the big > picture because it improves equipment utilization. This is > especially important for freight cars, since they are durable > assets that tend to become technologically obsolete long before > they physically wear out. Poor utilization is one reason the RR's > continue to have trouble attracting investment in the capital > markets. Gary R. Kazin DL&W Milepost R35.7 Rockaway, New Jersey __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List Sponsored by the ELH&TS http://www.elhts.org ------------------------------
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