Replying to a message of Dan Ceppa to Bob Ackley:

 BA>> The railroads also cannot promise delivery on or by a certain date;
 BA>> the load will get where it's supposed to go, eventually.  Nor can
 BA>> they promise that a loaded railcar will be picked up on a certain
 BA>> date.  This sort of thing just does not work when companies need
 BA>> pickup and delivery *on time*. 

 DC> Bothe the customer and the RRs will need to change and adapt.  IIRC,
 DC> the  place I worked at had a regularly scheduled day for pickup.  The
 DC> only  delivery was an empty rr car for the next pickup.  

Problem is, the few manufacturers remaining in this country use 'just in time'
inventory management.  There's no in-plant parts or supplies inventory, if a
truckload of materials is late, the plant stops until it gets there.

Case in point.  Eaton has a plant in Shenandoah that cuts gears from blanks.
A truckload of gear blanks overturned at Emerson (about 20 miles north) enroute
to the plant (driver on cell phone - fortunately with his boss, load not secured
in trailer, big bump when trailer wheels hit highway island, load shifted).  The
plant hired a local trucker and a Bobcat to go up to Emerson with several of its
employees and pick up the load (gear blanks are not fragile) rather then wait for the
insurance to pay off and a new load sent.  Had they not done that most of the plant
employees would have had the afternoon off and their production schedule would
have been thrown off.

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