Cars Online
The Weekly Cars Online Report shows the total amount of cars operational by North American Class I Railroads, with a historical perspective. You can use this information to monitor the historical trends of organization’s operational cars.
Why is this important?
There are many instances where it may be useful for shippers to analyze and compare operational car data by railroad over time. For instance, this data, as well as other data points, can be an indication of how a carrier is performing, or if there are particular times of the year where cars are offline or online. This can help inform your shipping and logistical planning decisions.
Weekly Carloads
The Weekly Carloads Report shows the weekly volume of carloads carried by the major railroads in North America. Carloads carried is the sum of carloads originated and carloads received from connecting railroads. This information can show not only the volume that a rail carrier transports, but also indicates the general market share of each carrier.
The Weekly Carloads by Commodity Report and Weekly Carloads by Commodity Group Report shows the total carload rail traffic originated by commodity group for North American Railroad. Carload traffic is classified into 20 major commodity categories, such as coal, chemicals, grain, and primary metal products. You can use this information to monitor rail traffic in your specific industry.
Why is this important?
How can this information help you? There are many instances where it may be useful for shippers to analyze and compare carload volume and market share data by railroad. For instance, this data, as well as other data points, can be an indication of how aggressive a carrier may be in their pricing relative to their competition. This can help inform your rail rate negotiations. Carriers that are quickly increasing their weekly volume may be more likely to negotiate and buy your business from competitors.
Railroad tracking data of carload volume by commodity can help you monitor the shipping environment for your products. Is volume increasing or decreasing? When carload volumes drop, the rail carriers tend to price more aggressively to hopefully stimulate more activity. Conversely, as volumes increase, the rail carriers often elevate pricing as a result of the increase in demand. This data can help you refine your rail rate negotiation strategies, and find which rail carriers might be most willing to negotiate with you based on the type of commodities that you work with. You can also use the information to make forecasts for your commodities based on the historic traffic for particular months, seasons, or quarters.
Finally, if you are analyzing a recent price spike or a gradual price increase that you’ve experienced across your rail route, you can use the commodity reporting to see if this price increase makes sense for your commodity, or if it’s time to renegotiate.
Weekly Carload Comparison
The Weekly Carload Yearly Comparison is a general indicator of the sum of the Carloads for the Class I carriers over the last three years.
Why is this important?
A Yearly comparison of Weekly Carloads is an important tool to see an overall, historical, viewpoint of the rail shipping industry. Historical data and trends can be used to inform future planning, logistics, and data points.
Related Resources
Delay Reports
A collection of reports covering the delays and service interruptions of the Class I Railroads. This includes Yard Dwell, Trains Delayed, and Cars Held.
Velocity
Velocity is the speed of a train from origination to destination, including the amount of time a train dwells in a yard for a crew change, pick-up or set-off of traffic.
