[Date Prev][Date Next] [Chronological] [Thread] [Top]

Re: (erielack) Trailer per diem

Schuyler, Mike and List,

In the early 1970's, there was an important addition to the interchange rules regarding "General Service" trailers, making them, in effect, "free runners" over all roads which had signed an agreement with the owner. Presumably this covered dry vans and excluded reefers, insulated trailers and open-tops. This was similar to the "incentive per diem" rule for designated boxcars, created in the late 70's to try to alleviate chronic boxcar shortages. In this regard it was too successful, as many investors were left holding the bag in the boxcar bust of the early 1980's (This included Trailer Train with its involvement in Railbox.) But I digress.

I'm not sure what the impetus was for this trailer rule. Trailer supply may have been an issue, since TOFC was financially marginal and cyclic, and the new arrangement gave carriers more of an incentive to buy trailers. This appeared to be the case for EL, which ordered 1,000 trailers in 1973-74, a very large number for a carrier of that size. Also, TOFC had already become a very long distance mode, with average length of haul approaching 1,000 miles, almost double that of carload traffic. Therefoer a high proportion of trailers were interchanged, and flexible rules made it more likely a load could be secured for the next trip.

Quoting the rule from a 1983 OIER: "When the origin carrier has ascertained that all carriers involved in the route have existing agreements with the owner to accept such trailers, empty foreign trailers designated as General Service may be loaded without regard to ownership, destination or route unless...ordered home for inspection, maintenance (etc)...a specific trailer may be ordered home no more than once in any 12-month period."

Re Mike's question on empty trailer movement, the answer again depends on the year. This topic is covered in the UPS article in the Diamond; look at Table 4 on pg 20. Empty westbound trailer volume was a big problem for EL (and other Eastern roads). EL solved it by de-soliciting meat traffic, which was almost exclusively eastbound, and pursuing UPS , which was predominantly westbound.

Paul B

Piggy-backing  :-)   off of Lou's question about the trailer loads; were 
(are) railroad trailers subject to the same interchange rules as other 
freight cars (per diem, return to home road etc.)?  Also, occasionally 
in photos one sees empty flatbeds on TOFC headed west in EL trains, so 
were empty trailer movements common on the EL and was that predominately 
westbound?

Mike Oravec

A friend reports for Mike's question:

> My 1969 ORER has the "Code of Trailer Service Rules and 
> recommended procedures. for reporting.  The code is simila to 
> the car service rules, but much simpler.  It doesn't have per 
> diem rules and maintenance agreements, but they must have 
> existed because the trailer listings refer to per diem 
> reports and repairs.

SGL
La vita e breve, mangiate prima il dolce! 


	The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List
	Sponsored by the ELH&TS
	http://www.elhts.org
	To Unsubscribe: http://lists.elhts.org/erielackunsub.html

------------------------------