A Partnership of Two Old Rivals
RAILROADERS and truckers have barred no holds in their thumb-in-eye competition for more business. Over the years the truckers have managed to lure millions of dollars worth of freight traffic annually from the railroads. But as the trailer fleets have grown, truckers have brought on themselves the ire of motorists and tightening restrictions from states on trailer weights, size, etc. Railroaders, in turn, have seen their costs rise as business dropped. These pressures are forcing the two adversaries to end their fighting and compromise. The compromise: piggyback shipping, i.e., carrying loaded truck trailers on railroad flatcars.
A few railroads, notably the Chicago Great Western and the New Haven, have been in the piggyback business for years. The New Haven has been piggybacking since 1937, now carries more than 50,000 trailers a year and grosses $2,000,000 on the service. But it is only recently that most of the giants have become interested. Last month the Great Northern started a piggyback service between the Twin Cities and Duluth. This month the Lackawanna, the Erie, the Nickel Plate and the Pennsylvania are all launching similar services; the New York Central, the Lehigh Valley, the Union Pacific and the Missouri-Kansas-Texas are also about to join the parade. The railroads are betting millions on piggybacking. The Pennsylvania, for example, in starting its piggyback service between New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Chicago, is spending $2,800,000 for 200 new flatcars. The New York Central expects to spend about $2,000,000 on six piggyback terminals along its line.
Piggybackers argue that everyone—shippers, truckers and railroaders—should benefit. In many cases, piggybacking should not take business away from the truckers. The railroads will simply charge them a fee for handling the long-haul shipments that wear out truckers' equipment and boost their costs. For their part, the railroads will get some much-needed extra revenue. Says Erie's Traffic Vice President Harry W. Von Willer: "Trucks take only the kind of business they want. They skim off the cream. We can't live on milk. We want cream." The New York Central alone figures that piggybacking will boost its gross $80 million a year. To motorists, piggybacking is also good news; it should remove many truck trailers from the roads.
The truckers will benefit in several ways. Their insurance and labor costs will go down, since the driver will not be needed on the long railroad hauls, and they will not be hampered by loading laws that differ from state to state. A trucker now operating over the roads between New York and Chicago, for example, must underload his trailer in order to meet the requirements of Pennsylvania and Ohio. Shippers may also profit by lower rates. The cost of shipping by piggyback is estimated at 20¢ per trailer mile v. about 24¢ over the road. Furthermore, piggybacking combines the advantages of rail and truck transport: 1) the speed and dependability of rail, no matter what the weather; 2) the flexibility and door-to-door delivery of trucking.