The AP reports America's second largest automotive hauler is giving up. Thanks to a Teamster's strike, Performance Transportation Services (PTS) is calling it quits. PTS was already operating under Chapter 11 reorganization caused by the double whammy of imploding demand and skyrocketing fuel costs. Perhaps the fact that PTS was not a participant in the "national car haulers contract" with the Teamsters are negotiating with other major suppliers had something to do with what went down. CEO Jeff Cornish concluded that "the leadership of the union had a different agenda [other than PTS' workers' paychecks]." Oh well. The company that "delivered more than 4 million new and used cars annually from 24 facilities nationwide with its fleet of 1,800 trucks" is now gone for good. Expect to see more cars on freight trains. Or maybe Toyota wants to mop-up some of it's extra cash and put 1800 rolling billboards on the highway with it's own-branded delivery fleet. The four Horsemen of the Apocalypse continue to gallop through the American automotive industry's supplier base.
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“The four Horsemen of the Apocalypse continue to gallop through the American automotive industry’s supplier base.”
Very well put. But, lately, I have to really wonder if they are just limited to automotive suppliers. Maybe they’re just the first stop.
Enjoy what you got when you got it.
So….you guys got any GOOD news?
I am looking forward a few years to buying an electric car made in Chad, sold by Amazon.com, and delivered by UPS. It will be fun glueing on the body panels, installing the seats, dropping the motor and batteries in, and bolting on the wheels. It will remind us old timers of cars like the Lotus 7.
Freight Rail in the USA is almost at full capacity. Many railcar companies don’t really want the business of the car manufacturers. I believe the miles of freight railway throughout the USA has been cut in half since the 70s.
Joe ShpoilShport :
June 14th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Very well put. But, lately, I have to really wonder if they are just limited to automotive suppliers. Maybe they’re just the first stop.
They are just the first stop. As those suppliers fail, everybody that makes a living catering to them will also take a hit.
It’s lots of fun pointing out how shitty our domestic manufacturers are. Lets see how much fun it is when we all take a pay cut because of their failures.
“I believe the miles of freight railway throughout the USA has been cut in half since the 70s.”
That there is one of the regrettable consequences of low fuel costs. Rail is a dramatically more efficient way to move freight long distances than are trucks.
The railroads are rebuilding a lot of that lost capacity, and adding more, but it takes time and a LOT of money, as in billions of dollars. A lot of the lost miles aren’t ever coming back – there’s no need for a lot of those branchlines that used to go all over Iowa, for instance – but a lot of mainlines that were reduced from double-track to single-track in the old days are having the second track reinstalled. Even a lot of lines that were always single- or double-track are being double- or triple-tracked. We’re not where we need to be yet, but we’re working on it.
It doesn’t help trucking companies that diesel costs so much more than gasoline. Right now in New Mexico gas prices are around $3.95, whereas diesel costs around $4.80 a gallon. It completely rubs out the higher mileage benefits.
we’ll see if the hippies that made rails to trails are willing to give back the paths in the name of saving fuel and traffic
Frantz :
we’ll see if the hippies that made rails to trails are willing to give back the paths in the name of saving fuel and traffic
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Will that be about the same time that suburbanites in subdivisions will be willing to give back the farm land that their houses sit on?
Speaking of railroads. An absolutely fascinating aspect of railroads is track maintenance; called “maintenance of way” in that world. Imagine the tremendous labor intensity of replacing a tie; so specialty manufacturers and service companies exist to lower the cost and time involved in MOW work. Very interesting to me at least.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5Pxt0ZjV0w&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqhm-DgoCfs&feature=related
beater :
Will that be about the same time that suburbanites in subdivisions will be willing to give back the farm land that their houses sit on?
Luckily for me, my house sits on former swampland. The gators and snakes would probably have something to say about that, but they don’t speak.
I bet you will see the remains picked up on the cheap. I would buy into this with a decent private equity firm. At the very least, 1800 truckers will have the opportunity to get into the car hauling business for cheap.
The abandoned mileage stats are deceptive.
It was mostly the secondary and tertiary lines that were abandoned. The mainline “interstates” are still going quite strong.
The old model was you loaded a box car with your freight and it would often go all the way to its destination at another warehouse in the box car.
In many older industrial areas they never went to the trouble and expense of ripping up the train tracks in the street.
The new model is you load your freight into a 53′ domestic container, it goes on a intermodal semi-trailer to the (relatively) local rail ramp, rides the rails most of the way and then has final delivery by another local drayage carrier.
The trucking industry has had a good 35 year run based on cheap fuel and the subsidized interstate highway system.
Of course, relying on a few rail “mainlines” could leave important commerce vulnerable to terrorism, so security will be an added cost…