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RE: (erielack) Water bottles...
Paul..
I've heard what ur saying many times and it always seems to me that they (Conrail) are standiing Henry Ford principles on their head. I. E. the economies of size don't work for the Class 1s acct they can't make money from small shippers. Meanwhile, the shortlines (& some not so short) can, without the economies of scale, make money from small shippers and indeed, prosper. Am I missing something here????
I'm reminded of the subcontractor for food service at the State University of NY at Binghamton (Slater Food Service). The food got worse and the prices got higher. We at the campus radio station (WHRW 90.5FM) invited the manager for a call-in show. He explained to one caller that "the campus had gotten larger and larger each year and therefore the prices had to go up since now (1967 there were almost 7,000 students). The caller said that 'by 1971 there'd be 10,000 students and he (Slater) would be bankrupt since the more customers, the less money he made and that was standing Henry Ford on his head'.
I guess as corporations become more like dinosaurs, they become less efficient, just like in nature..........sad.
Regards,
Walt Smith> From: doctorpb_@_bellsouth.net> To: erielack@lists.railfan.net> Subject: Re: (erielack) Water bottles...> Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2007 06:24:50 -0400> > You didn't mention the exact timeframe, but by the 1980's, Conrail, like > most other Class 1's, was focused on large customers and wholesale > transportation. So if you were a steel mill, coal mine, auto manufacturer, > freight forwarder/consolidator or containership line, you would have been > well looked after. Conrail simply didn't maintain a sufficient staff of > sales people or freight agents to service the shipper of one or a few > carloads. There isn't enough profit in that, particularly in the shorthaul > move you offered, so they really didn't want your business and behaved > accordingly. The retail carload business has become the domain of shortlines > and regionals.> > In future, it would be nice if you could include your first name in your > post.> > Paul B> > From: secbyte@ptd.net> Subject: Re: (erielack) Water bottles...> > Sometimes I wonder if this would be true.> > I remember having a business in Dover along the old CNJ line on North> Salem St. and it was next to impossible to get the railroad to add me as> a customer. First of all it was like pulling teeth to get to the people> I needed to talk to in the first place and then it was one excuse after> another to get things shipped out by boxcar. We spoke to the M&E and to> Conrail. We were sending huge loads to a recycling plant in Mass and> they would have preferred material shipped by boxcar but it got to be> such a project that we hired a trucking company to service us. It was> like they just did not want any new business. In other industry you> loose customers and you develop new ones. It seemed to me that the RR> was only interested in burning the ones they had up and not developing> new ones.> > > The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List> Sponsored by the ELH&TS> http://www.elhts.org> To Unsubscribe: http://lists.elhts.org/erielackunsub.html
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