“At YRC Freight, our intermodal commerce with BNSF is evolving. We are reinforcing our commitment to YRC Freight-branded containerized units for the present and the future. As intermodal usage continues to shift to containerized transport, YRC Freight will already be there,” confirms YRC Worldwide Chief Operating Officer and YRC Freight President T.J. O’Connor.
Intermodal operations between truck and rail are a valuable emissions reduction strategy in the central and western United States to move trailers/containers over long distances. YRC Freight deploys a number of strategies to reduce its carbon footprint including its work with BNSF, use of longer combination vehicles, onboarding of new tractors with advanced emission reduction technologies and integration of industry-leading routing and load optimization software. Recently, YRC Freight renewed its annual certification with the award-winning EPA SmartWay voluntary emissions program.
“Operationally, all intermodal companies are looking at how to improve efficiency,” said YRC Freight Senior Vice President, Operations, Maynard Skarka. “Currently, we use smaller trailers called ‘pups’ to transport freight for our customers. This new shift to our branded containerized units will allow us to stay aligned with intermodal companies as we both look for operational efficiencies.”
BNSF remains focused on working with its customers to develop the best supply chain solutions for the movement of containers and trailers across its rail network. Its collaboration with YRC is great example of how it is doing that.
“At BNSF we are always looking at how we can create more efficiencies and greater capacity on our network, particularly in markets like the Inland Empire where containerization will help us leverage capacity to grow with increasing demand over time,” said BNSF Vice President, Domestic Intermodal, Todd Carter. “We will continue to work with our customers to transport both containers and trailers and will make adjustments that make sense to our overall logistics strategy with an eye toward meeting our customers’ expectations and fostering our mutual ability to grow.”
— A YRC Freight news release. Sept. 30, 2019.
Is YRC a new name (or connected to) Yellow Freight?
@Braden Kayganich,
Like I said UPS didn’t push it, and they have both the volume and ears of the railroads to the point that they could’ve easily done so…and I’m almost surprised they didn’t, seems their bean counters missed a golden opportunity at instant savings/increased profit.
I’ve seen a number of the YRC 53′ containers on Z and Q trains on the Hi Line already. They’re Navy blue with the YRC logo in the middle of the container. The days of the TOFC intermodal trains are numbered as more trucking companies switch to container.
What does the term branded mean?
It makes me wonder how many more times freight will need to be re-handled. It’s a fact that the more times freight is handled the more chance you have for damage.
Add Estes to this list.
@Gerald McFarlane
Gunderson at the time had tested a few 56’ stand alone maxi stack cars. Nothing came to fruition as the pup boxes fell out of favor.
It’s too bad that UPS and BNSF didn’t continue on with the 28′ containers, should’ve worked with Greenbrier to come up with a 57′ well car that could carry 4 28′ Pup containers stacked, imagine the savings and all of these LTL companies could transition easily into containerized intermodal.
The container asset is owned by YRC and is marked to reflect that. Minimally via reporting marks such as YRCU, and probably also a YRC logo.