BNSF Railway’s New Intermodal Storage Coverage Angers Shippers
Final week, on August seventeenth, a BNSF Railway intermodal storage coverage change went into impact that’s making shippers sad.
The displeasure with the brand new coverage couldn’t be missed in a current e mail I obtained about BNSF Railway’s new storage coverage. Right here’s a line from the e-mail:
“BN is formally worse than Canadian rails now because the beneath new coverage already began…”
The tone may solely be stronger if an expletive or two had been added to the sentence.
So what’s the brand new coverage that has individuals so up in arms? Right here’s the announcement BSNF Railway made to its clients in June concerning the coverage that went into impact final week:
Facility Group Consolidation
Intermodal facility storage teams can be simplified from three teams to 2 teams. Group One Intermodal Services will accrue storage fees after the day of notification plus 24 hours. Group Two Intermodal Services will accrue storage fees after the day of notification plus 48 hours.
Chargeable Days Modification
BNSF is returning to our prior coverage of counting all days of the week, together with Sunday, as a part of the chargeable time calculations.
The phrase “together with Sunday” is what has shippers so upset by the coverage change.
The tip of the “regular workweek” and weekends are frequent arrival occasions for shipments. BNSF Railway’s intermodal storage coverage change means much less time for shippers to get their shipments picked up earlier than charges begin accruing.
In a time when the worldwide transport business is battling a scarcity of truckers, getting shipments picked up in time might develop into a serious problem for a lot of.
In an e mail in the identical thread as the e-mail I quoted earlier, an instance of how the coverage change affected when a cargo wanted to be picked up and a warning for shippers to be vigilant is included:
I had a cargo… arrive into BNSF Houston on Saturday and the LFD [last free day] is in the present day [Monday]. BNSF is starting to incorporate Sundays into their free time. Earlier than if a cargo arrived on Saturday, I might have at the very least till Tuesday to select up.
I suppose the worst case state of affairs could be if a cargo arrived on Friday…then we must decide up by Sunday. That may imply we’ll want our truckers to prepull Friday.
However please pay shut consideration to your LFDs.
Please take note of your final free day on shipments is an effective warning. $150 a day on selecting up late is a major charge.
The instance within the e mail was fortunate to be a cargo arriving in Houston. That made it in Facility Group 2. Chicago, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Portland, San Bernardino, South Seattle, Stockton, and St. Louis all fall in Facility Group 1 and get at some point much less of free intermodal storage.
Which means if the cargo talked about within the e mail had arrived in Los Angeles on Saturday, its final free day would have been Sunday!
That’s not a lot of a window to get a trucker in to select up your cargo within the nation’s busiest metropolis relating to worldwide transport.
With 30 years of expertise within the worldwide transport business, Common Cargo received’t have main difficulties with this coverage change; nevertheless, for shippers new to worldwide transport and BNSF clients generally, this modification may very well be very expensive certainly.
What do you consider BNSF Railway’s transfer to incorporate Sundays of their chargeable time calculations? Tell us within the feedback part beneath.
