In a statement early Friday morning, Norfolk Southern says it will restructure its Triple Crown Service subsidiary by laying off as many as 200 of its 240-person workforce and paring back the routes RoadRailer trailers travel on to just a single lane. That is expected to be a Detroit to Kansas City-area routing that hauls mostly auto parts.
“This change is a natural evolution in the business,” says Alan H. Straw, NS executive vice president and chief marketing officer. “We want to retain the best of [Triple Crown] in specific markets with efficient door-to-door logistics and award-winning customer service.”
NS’ statement says Triple Crown workers who lose their jobs will be eligible for severance payments, job placement assistance, and the ability to apply for positions with the railroad.
Triple Crown is the remaining major carrier to use RoadRailer-branded trailers which are reinforced tractor-trailer boxes that can ride of top of a single railroad truck without a separate frame or supporting freight car. They’ve been in use in some form since the 1960s but failed to take market share away from intermodal containers that ride on flat railroad flatcars or semi-truck trailer chassis.
UPDATED: Sept. 18, 2015, 2:09 p.m.: clarified word usage and sentence structure.
