TORONTO — Fifty years ago this month, Canadian Pacific Railway revolutionized North American transportation with the introduction of the intermodal freight system.
From its launch on the night of December 1, 1952, as a single service – carrying truck trailers on railway flat cars between Toronto and Montreal – it has grown into a wide range of fast and efficient services that deliver reliable transportation through 21 terminals across the CPR’s transcontinental, cross-border rail network.
“We’ve become the largest segment of CPR’s business,” said Lawre Allen, CPR vice-president, intermodal and automotive. “This is a market where ingenuity distinguishes the players. We have brought some very creative thinking to the business. CPR has innovative intermodal products for long-, medium- and short-haul corridors. Today, CPR Intermodal functions more like a trucking company than a railway.”
CPR Intermodal weds the superiority of trains in moving large volumes of freight over long distances with the flexibility of local truck delivery and pick-up. It capitalizes on the benefits of safe and environmentally friendly rail transportation to replace long-haul trucking. This frees up trucks, drivers and highway capacity that can be better used for other purposes. By reducing long-haul trucking, it also reduces taxpayer-funded highway maintenance costs. A single CPR intermodal train can haul the equivalent of 300 trucks.
In 2001, CPR Intermodal generated Cdn.$801 million and 917,000 loads. Intermodal has been CPR’s leading revenue growth performer through the first three quarters of 2002, increasing $43 million or 7 per cent over the same period in 2001. Revenue has grown by nearly $200 million or 30 per cent in the last five years. This is more loads, revenue and growth than traditional traffic such as coal, grain and other bulk products.
CPR Intermodal now consists of four broadly-defined products:
– domestic intermodal containers serving the high-priority Canadian and U.S. markets;
– import/export containers moving between Canadian and U.S. seaports and inland destinations in both countries;
– cross-border container and trailer loads linking all three NAFTA nations; and
– trucker- and shipper-owned trailers moving between Montreal, Toronto, Windsor and Detroit on the CPR’s fast-on/fast-off Expressway trains.
These services carry everything from high-priority auto parts to perishable food products and resource-based traffic, using a wide range of equipment that is easily carried by trains, trucks and ships. CPR Intermodal works in cooperation – not competition – with these other modes.
“We’ve been lucky to piggyback on to this service for 36 of its 50 years,” said Ron Tepper, president of Consolidated Fastfrate, Canada’s largest privately-owned freight forwarder. “As a less-than-truckload carrier, we have to be able to tell shippers where their freight is every step of the way and deliver it with less than 15 minutes of leeway, even though it travels thousands of kilometres. CPR has created something no one thought possible even 10 years ago, let alone 50.”
Consolidated Fastfrate and shippers such as Sears Canada and Canadian Tire have partnered decisively with CPR by building their regional distribution facilities next to CPR intermodal terminals in major Canadian centres. Under this co-location arrangement, Consolidated Fastfrate, Sears and Canadian Tire have their own private access to CPR’s terminals. Containers and trailers are delivered and picked up within minutes of the arrival or departure of the high-speed intermodal trains without truck movements on public roads.
Partnerships are also vital to the success of CPR’s innovative Expressway service in eastern Canada and Michigan. The only service of its kind anywhere, Expressway uses exceptionally smooth-riding, continuous-platform trains. Trailers owned by trucking companies and shippers such as Hudson’s Bay Company and DaimlerChrysler are whisked between Montreal, Toronto, Windsor and Detroit. The service eliminates more than 2,000 trucks weekly from crowded highways.
“Expressway has never been delayed at the border,” said Paul Gilmore, Expressway vice-president. “Even after September 11, we were able to run an emergency shuttle service to help DaimlerChrysler when its just-in-time shipments couldn’t get through at the regular highway border crossings. Since then, our volumes with DaimlerChrysler have grown very significantly. Others are now seeing the benefit of this service.”
CPR’s intermodal strength is partly rooted in the electronic customs pre-clearance systems it pioneered in the early 1990s. Detailed advance shipment data and electronic shipment tracking have made cross-border trade by rail more secure and efficient. This summer, CPR’s track record and smart clearance systems helped make it the first railway approved under Canada’s new Customs Self-Assessment (CSA) program. This gives CSA-designated shippers a fast lane into Canada on CPR.
CPR’s well-timed investments in equipment, terminals and information technology have enabled it to stay ahead of intermodal’s fast-paced growth. In the last five years, CPR has rebuilt its entire intermodal infrastructure, expanding existing terminals and building new ones.
“There is still more to gain,” said Allen. “Traffic growth should continue to come from small shippers who take advantage of the same custom- designed service our larger customers have enjoyed for years. With the right combination of service and price, we can shift more traffic off the highways and onto rail to the benefit of shippers, consumers, taxpayers and CPR. Our 50 years of success proves that.”
CPR’s 14,000-mile network serves the principal centres of Canada, from Montreal to Vancouver, and the U.S. Northeast and Midwest regions. CPR feeds directly into the Chicago hub from the East and West coasts. Alliances with other carriers extend CPR’s market reach beyond its own network and into the major business centres of Mexico.