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EASY SEAL: Dock levelers connect the level of the warehouse floor to the center of the railroad tracks, either manually or hydraulically via a push button.

SHED NO TEARS: By keeping inventory in the Railex Rotterdam facility, Easterday can maintain consistent delivery schedules.

COLD CHAIN: Leprino is shipping its products using refrigerated rail cars from BNSF and UP.

Both the railroad and trucking industries have kept cold-chain food shippers on their toes over the last several years. Constantly tracking the most cost-efficient and reliable transportation modes, food producers have been switching to and from rail and truck, depending on which mode offered the most attractive pricing, guaranteed capacity and guaranteed delivery schedules.

Despite the ongoing challenges inherent in either mode, shippers today are taking a closer look at boxcar. The days of setting your pocket watch to the local rumbling boxcar train may no longer be a part of Americana, but this is good news for cold-train boxcar shippers. We caught up with boxcar providers offering reliable transcontinental transit times that compete handily with truck offerings. We also found food producers who couldn't be more pleased with their refrigerated boxcar component.

Fresh Trends

Although rail and truck have had their share of sibling-like jealous competition throughout the years, it remains a fact that either couldn't exist without the other in getting food products on local supermarket shelves in a timely fashion. Even the most notably advanced rail program providers acknowledge the trucking industry's prominence in their respective supply chains.

However, it's no secret rail providers are attracting more customers these days. "The pendulum is definitely swinging back to where rail is back in fashion," notes Don Newton, recently retired manager of rail operations for J.R. Simplot, with over 25 years' experience in the rail industry. "The demand for rail continues to increase because of trucking's problems with things like fuel surcharges, driver shortages and the latest HOS (Hours of Service) regulations."

Despite the new interest in boxcar, challenges still persist. "With the pendulum favoring rail, there's more demand than the four U.S. and two Canadian Class I railroads can service and they say the only way to curb demand is to raise prices, ostensibly because of fuel prices and rail upgrades," continues Newton.