I ordered some parts on Monday that came with a Friday estimated delivery. The order shipped from Sacramento, trace shows an arrival/departure at Roseburg, Portland and Hermiston before being delivered today. I recall that UPS' goal is to deliver from anywhere in the lower 48 by ground within 4 working days, so that means orders shipped on Monday have to scramble to make it, but all the other shipping days get to use the weekend. By the trace locations, I would assume this was trucked up I-5 to I-84, so apparently UP does not have the right pricing and/or schedule to be competitive in the I-5 corridor. I could see where out of the LA basin they would struggle to get through Tehachapi, but the coast line is available.

Now a week before I had another order that had a much different outcome. Again, parts ordered on Monday from a Chicago area vendor, which I expected to arrive by Friday. I stopped on the way out of town at the local UPS terminal to claim the needed box of parts on Friday which was not there. A trace showed "trailer delayed" and the box had bounced around Illinois but had not left the state in three days. The box did show up on Monday, a full week after being shipped - isn't Chicago supposed to be the transportation hub of America? I have no idea why they couldn't get it out of Illinois since the weather was decent. Not sure but I would guess that it was supposed to come this way on a BNSF Z train.

So was UPS having problems, or did their rail connection in Illinois fail? The "other" site is reporting that due to congestion BNSF is quickly expanding their ramp at Spokane and is trucking many Z trains' loads between Portland and Spokane. This is claimed to be the new SOP for the next couple years until BNSF can get some more second main track in place.

It has been discussed here whether or not BNSF was in meltdown mode or not - and I would say yes they are but they are hiding it well. Just look at the Empire Builder. And BNSF's dirty little secret this winter is that they were parking grain cars to reduce congestion and free up engines and crews. I saw one claim that they are about a month behind on grain trains now.

It is interesting that as competitive as the intermodal rail business is, traditionally it has had a much smaller profit margin than the loose car traffic that most Class 1s are ignoring.

At the rate we are going we will be having to pay for some kind of 3-day priority service to get any package delivered within two weeks. Another profit center for the shippers, charging us extra to provide a basic reliable service.