Rail shipping restrictions? (Fertilizer)

[Backfire]

This isn't helping...

"“The timing of this action by Union Pacific could not come at a worse time for farmers,” said Tony Will, president and chief executive officer, CF Industries Holdings, Inc. “Not only will fertilizer be delayed by these shipping restrictions, but additional fertilizer needed to complete spring applications may be unable to reach farmers at al"

https://www.cfindustries.com/newsroo...g-restrictions

[Diamondback]

The strike on Canadian Pacific's sole potash routing to supply the US ain't helping either...

[Coal Dragger]

OK, here’s a dose of reality for everyone who’s not in the RR industry:

1.) The major Class 1 RR’s in North America (Union Pacific, Burlington Northern Santa Fe, CSX, Norfolk Southern, Kansas City Southern, Canadian National, and Canadian Pacific) don’t give a single rat’s ass about anything but their profits.

2.) The above named companies consistently are among the worst corporations in North America when measured by customer service. If a Class 1 RR can figure out a way to screw over a customer they do it as a matter of policy. Ethics are heavily discouraged.

3.) They don’t give a shit about their employees either, seeing them as scum who deserve to be punished. Since 2015 the above named companies have slashed approximately 30% of their workforce. Now they complain about manpower shortages, and work the remaining employees even harder while refusing to negotiate in good faith on ongoing contract negotiations.

Morale has never been lower among operating employees, I can tell you all that at this point I don’t care if I turn a wheel and the locomotives all catch on fire. As long as my conductor and I can get off safely with our grips (luggage) and lunch boxes I’ll happily watch the shit burn to the ground while I eat a sammich.

4.) They’ve all been deferring as much maintenance on track, and equipment as possible since roughly 2015 when the good idea fairy (E. Hunter Harrison who is hopefully burning in hell) spread the gospel of “Precision Scheduled Railroading”. For example a huge number of locomotives have been laid up and stripped for parts instead of being properly stored, rebuilt, and made ready for an upswing in traffic.

Ironically given the name, Precision Scheduled Railroading is not precise, nothing runs on schedule, and it’s not railroading. It’s just cost cutting to puff up stock prices by making operating ratios look pretty. Wall Street loves it. Customers, employees, and the public do and should hate it.

So now the Class 1 RR’s don’t have enough people and they don’t have enough functional equipment or track to handle an increase in business. They want to blame everyone but the management teams responsible for short sighted decision making.

As much as I loathe the thought of government intervention Congress and Let’s Go Brandon should really be coming down hard on these shit heels because they are willfully ignoring laws and obligations as common carriers, and it is having a very detrimental effect on shippers, the overall economy, supply chains, and therefore the public.

[opngrnd]

OK, here’s a dose of reality for everyone who’s not in the RR industry:

1.) The major Class 1 RR’s in North America (Union Pacific, Burlington Northern Santa Fe, CSX, Norfolk Southern, Kansas City Southern, Canadian National, and Canadian Pacific) don’t give a single rat’s ass about anything but their profits.

2.) The above named companies consistently are among the worst corporations in North America when measured by customer service. If a Class 1 RR can figure out a way to screw over a customer they do it as a matter of policy. Ethics are heavily discouraged.

3.) They don’t give a shit about their employees either, seeing them as scum who deserve to be punished. Since 2015 the above named companies have slashed approximately 30% of their workforce. Now they complain about manpower shortages, and work the remaining employees even harder while refusing to negotiate in good faith on ongoing contract negotiations.

Morale has never been lower among operating employees, I can tell you all that at this point I don’t care if I turn a wheel and the locomotives all catch on fire. As long as my conductor and I can get off safely with our grips (luggage) and lunch boxes I’ll happily watch the shit burn to the ground while I eat a sammich.

4.) They’ve all been deferring as much maintenance on track, and equipment as possible since roughly 2015 when the good idea fairy (E. Hunter Harrison who is hopefully burning in hell) spread the gospel of “Precision Scheduled Railroading”. For example a huge number of locomotives have been laid up and stripped for parts instead of being properly stored, rebuilt, and made ready for an upswing in traffic.

Ironically given the name, Precision Scheduled Railroading is not precise, nothing runs on schedule, and it’s not railroading. It’s just cost cutting to puff up stock prices by making operating ratios look pretty. Wall Street loves it. Customers, employees, and the public do and should hate it.

So now the Class 1 RR’s don’t have enough people and they don’t have enough functional equipment or track to handle an increase in business. They want to blame everyone but the management teams responsible for short sighted decision making.

As much as I loathe the thought of government intervention Congress and Let’s Go Brandon should really be coming down hard on these shit heels because they are willfully ignoring laws and obligations as common carriers, and it is having a very detrimental effect on shippers, the overall economy, supply chains, and therefore the public.

Does a lack of competition from non-railroad sectors keep the market from correcting these issues?

[Coal Dragger]

For commodities shipments like bulk freight it does to a large extent.

Only competition is by barge for a lot of stuff.

For example a loaded coal train will gross 19,000-20,000 tons or more, figure a net weight in coal of 16,000 tons or more. You’re not trucking that to a power plant. For that matter even if final delivery is via barge it’s getting from the mine to the barge or ship loading port via rail.

Same for grain, fertilizer, concrete aggregate, iron ore, lumber, and other large heavy “stuff”.

[lowprone]

They act exactly like the Russian armed forces and you should expect similar results .

[Coal Dragger]

Not far off, except the actual operating craft employees do in fact have a lot of skill.

We know how to do our jobs safely, and in an expedited manner (like going A to B as fast as the equipment will do it within rules and speed limits), we’re just not allowed to.

For example running around at low speeds with locomotives offline adding dead weight, and throttle restrictions on what is online. So we run around doing 40mph under track speed all the time, because some ass clown thinks it saves fuel. Yet we still fuel in the same location, and take on just as much fuel as we did a decade ago when we ran at full throttle. The fact that medium speed Diesel engines make their most efficient power at full throttle because they’re designed to is lost on management that thinks a locomotive is the same as their Honda.

[ThirdWatcher]

Man, that’s sad. Things seem to be going from bad to worse in this world...

[lowprone]

That's because they are !

[Backfire]

OK, here’s a dose of reality for everyone who’s not in the RR industry:

1.) The major Class 1 RR’s in North America (Union Pacific, Burlington Northern Santa Fe, CSX, Norfolk Southern, Kansas City Southern, Canadian National, and Canadian Pacific) don’t give a single rat’s ass about anything but their profits.

2.) The above named companies consistently are among the worst corporations in North America when measured by customer service. If a Class 1 RR can figure out a way to screw over a customer they do it as a matter of policy. Ethics are heavily discouraged.

3.) They don’t give a shit about their employees either, seeing them as scum who deserve to be punished. Since 2015 the above named companies have slashed approximately 30% of their workforce. Now they complain about manpower shortages, and work the remaining employees even harder while refusing to negotiate in good faith on ongoing contract negotiations.

Morale has never been lower among operating employees, I can tell you all that at this point I don’t care if I turn a wheel and the locomotives all catch on fire. As long as my conductor and I can get off safely with our grips (luggage) and lunch boxes I’ll happily watch the shit burn to the ground while I eat a sammich.

4.) They’ve all been deferring as much maintenance on track, and equipment as possible since roughly 2015 when the good idea fairy (E. Hunter Harrison who is hopefully burning in hell) spread the gospel of “Precision Scheduled Railroading”. For example a huge number of locomotives have been laid up and stripped for parts instead of being properly stored, rebuilt, and made ready for an upswing in traffic.

Ironically given the name, Precision Scheduled Railroading is not precise, nothing runs on schedule, and it’s not railroading. It’s just cost cutting to puff up stock prices by making operating ratios look pretty. Wall Street loves it. Customers, employees, and the public do and should hate it.

So now the Class 1 RR’s don’t have enough people and they don’t have enough functional equipment or track to handle an increase in business. They want to blame everyone but the management teams responsible for short sighted decision making.

As much as I loathe the thought of government intervention Congress and Let’s Go Brandon should really be coming down hard on these shit heels because they are willfully ignoring laws and obligations as common carriers, and it is having a very detrimental effect on shippers, the overall economy, supply chains, and therefore the public.

When morale is bad things fall apart quick. Sorry to hear about your frustrations