Why Rail?

When comparing the costs of rail vs truck, rail offers significant advantages. Multimodal rail and truck shipping allows shippers to take advantage of cost savings even when receivers are not located on rail. Optimizing your shipping strategy to maximize the cost savings of rail transit can significantly reduce your logistics spend. 

To compare the costs of rail vs truck shipping, consider the movement of a bulk commodity from Houston, TX to Cleveland, OH. The truck cost in this example lane is approximately $ 5,159 per load, whereas rail would be $ 6,676 per car. However, when comparing the costs of rail vs truck shipping, you must apply a ratio of 1:4, since one railcar equates to four truck loads.

Many shippers understand the savings potential in shipping rail versus truck, but, in many cases, receivers may only be able to receive material by truck. To take advantage of the economies of long-haul rail transportation and the speed and flexibility of local truck delivery, shippers rely on North America’s extensive bulk terminal network.

The cost to combine rail and truck using a bulk transfer terminal is approximately $95.54 per net ton. By comparison, rail direct is $70.27 per net ton, and over-the-road truck is $214.96 per net ton. Using multi-modal rail and truck transit compared to truck alone, you can cut transportation costs by more than half.