Good and Bad Of Intermodal

I ran intermodal as an O/O out of the Chicago yards years ago. Some pros were there was plenty of work, most of it is regional, got home quite a bit. Money was "OK".
Cons? In Chicago, 90% of the yards are in lousy neighborhoods. Loads were almost always HEAVY! Intermodal trailers and chassis were hit and miss as to condition. Spent a lot of times in yards looking for your loads, trying to find a decent empty, etc.

 

From my experience, can haulers are just roaming road blocks!

 

I ran rail cans out of Chicago too, for about 4 years. Things have gotten WAY better than years ago. Most of that junk wasn't safe to pull around the block, much less 46K allegedly in the box. Don't forget, a chassis and 53 foot box weighs as much as reefer. The good, is it's mostly local, or regional, ( 2-3 state area) equipment has gotten better, although, you'll still pick up a chassis with tube tires, the industry standard years ago. I averaged 2-3 flats per week. Rail yards open 24 hours, so you can grab them or return at night. That's about it for the good. The bad, rail yards aren't in the best areas, equipment still junk, I'm sure. They like to "load the wagon". Their reasoning is, "well, it's just going on the rail", yeah, but we had to get it to the rail, and you will pick up ball busters,(with poor brakes) Pay is not the best, but you can be home. Finding your can is another mess, and then trying to get a lift from these clowns, is another matter. You literally have to jump in front of the crane operator, or they will pass you by. Jerks. Also, many chassis' still don't have sliding tandems, not that they'd work anyway. Have fun with that. And never fails, the box you want is always on the bottom of a stack. In short, I'd never do it again.

 

I was home everyday, well, almost. Back then, for an O/O, like me, it was incentive, HOS be ######. I could have run 'round the clock, if I wanted, and sometimes did.I would NOT do it as an O/O again, but I think you could do ok as a driver, if you don't mind Volvo's, that is.

 

Been pulling Chicago rails for about a year, night shift and now day shift. Home every night net 850-1100 a week M-F, weekends if I want. I mostly go to Corwith, 47th, and 59th. Equipment isn't ideal, but finding a decent 53 chassis is easy enough.

Besides a select few most of the neighborhoods that the yards are in are well on the heels of gentrification and really aren't as bad as non Chicagoans make them out to be.

 

Guess it all depends on your part of the country. I've been hauling containers in the Denver area for 21 yrs. I'm home almost every night, until lately, I was gone maybe 1 or 2 nights per month, but in the last 5 months, seems like once a week I'm gone overnight, but it depends on the customer as well. The one thing with intermodal, like all of trucking, it can be very finicky for how busy it is. In some areas, if you have a lot of grain exports, global demand can keep you hoping all the time, until there's a slow down for demand (like now with some of the tariff battles). General freight import/export can vary by region, you definitely want to have HAZMAT, there are times where we'll get a ton of HAZMAT for weeks on end, then we might not see any for several months, then suddenly there will be bunch.

As for cans being rolling roadblocks, again, depends on the part of the country, the trucking company and the drivers. In my area, dirt haulers are more of a problem than can haulers are.

 

chassis suck