I can’t take it any more and now I have to vent. Maybe I’ve been driven crazy by working with all those short lines, but I can’t agree with the assessment given by ‘Ding Dong’, ‘kmattg’, and Mr. Hunn. The short lines I work with all have a laser like focus on providing excellent customer service and innovative marketing.

For the most part, I only work with the western roads, but I work directly with them on customer service issues and know the marketing people very well. I can think of dozens of examples from OmniTrax, Watco, GWI, Permian Basin, Rio Grande Pacific, Anacostia & Pacific, and of course, the independent lines as well, all fighting for every scrap of business they can. A couple of examples come to mind.

First, I know of an OmniTrax road which is working with a shipper to develop accurate visibility tools so the shipper can create an internal loading plan. This was a truck diversion that came about because their marketing guy was out pounding the pavement to drum up new business.

An Anacostia & Pacific road has been spending many man hours working with a couple of key customers to ensure that they are receiving accurate invoices from the connecting Class 1. There isn’t any direct benefit to the short line here, just going that extra mile of work to make sure the customer is happy with rail service.

An associate of mine was telling me about a meeting he had with Watco, where Watco outlined their complete and total focus on trying to engage in what the customer wants. Watco is so serious about this, that they won’t even deal with vendors who can’t buy into this mindset of understanding the customer’s perspective. We were told that everything we did had to always start with the question of, “What does the customer (shipper/consignee) want?”

I also was working recently with a California short line that was trying to accommodate a customer who had a huge increase in their business. The short line ultimately wound up having to switch their customer six times a day in order to handle the business. The short line didn’t get ANY extra revenue from all this service, and the customer saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in expanding their unloading capacity. Oh, and the short line didn’t charge anything extra for demurrage either.

Time and time again, I’ve known short lines to jump at the chance to pick up a new client, and can’t think of any experiences I’ve had where they blew any prospective shipper off. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but I’ve spent the last 16 years of my career in working directly with short lines on these kinds of projects and I can’t think of any negative examples.

Lastly, I’m not sure where this mythological idea of the short lines being staffed by “Class 1 rejects” has come from, but I haven’t met this supposed creature. The people I know at short lines who have come from Class 1s are almost all experienced railroaders who are excited about making a positive contribution to the industry in the less structured and less bureaucratic world of short lines. There are some flakes out there that don’t see the big picture, but they’re a VERY small minority in the industry at large.

Steve Murray
Western Division Mgr.
RMI
stevem@railcarmgt.com