ATLANTA — Norfolk Southern has introduced an incentive program to improve container movement in and out of international intermodal facilities in Chicago and Kansas City, Mo.
The “Dual Mission Reward Program” offers truck carriers and steamship lines a $200 incentive every time a drayage driver both delivers and departs with a shipping container, completing what the railroad calls a dual mission. It is being tested at Chicago’s Landers Intermodal Facility, NS’s largest terminal handling international freight, and the Kansas City Intermodal Facility. The railroad will pay the reward when a trucking company or steamship line completes dual missions at least half time time over a set period.
The company says the idea grew out of brainstorming with customers and truckers on how to help address pandemic-related bottlenecks in the transportation supply chain, and says the pilot program can both increase efficiency and improve sustainability.
“Trucks leaving the terminal that were formerly empty now become loaded, productive miles for the truckers,” D’Andrae Larry, group vice president of international marketing at Norfolk Southern, said in a press release. “The amount of truck time saved by gaining an immediate load versus leaving the terminal to find a load, the emissions reduction, the employee productivity gains are all wins for sustainability in the marketplace.”
The railroad estimates that at Landers, if truckers both pick up and deliver at least 50% of the time, the program has the potential to eliminate approximately 46,000 truck trips, reduce fuel use by 546,000 gallons, and avoid over 5,600 metric tons of carbon emissions. Currently, truckers who deliver an international container to an NS facility leave empty about 85% time because of challenges in coordinating between customers in the U.S. and abroad.
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