Online booking offered for intermodal equipment

By Staff -- Logistics Management, 8/1/1998

Intermodal marketing companies (IMCs) looking to reserve a trailer or container now can do their booking online. The "REZ-1" system, operated by Tie Logistics of Newton, Mass., allows IMCs to place intermodal equipment orders on its Internet Web site (www.rez1systems.com) 24 hours a day for four railroads: Conrail, Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific, and Kansas City Southern.

To take part in the REZ-1 program, IMCs must have an agreement with one of the railroads, says Tie Logistics President Bill Habeck. "If you have a contract with an existing railroad [member], then you have access to REZ-1," he explains. Participants obtain a unique user name and password for the site.

The Web site provides real-time visibility of the various types of equipment available at locations around the country. "You can see [from the Web site] what equipment is in El Paso or Boston and make reservations," Habeck reports.

In addition, the IMCs now get a firm reservation that guarantees the equipment will be at the yard when the drayage truck arrives to get it. That's critical for IMCs, for whom equipment shortages present critical problems, particularly during peak shipping seasons.

For this service, IMCs pay a daily rate for renting equipment--on average, between $13 and $14 a day for a 48-foot trailer. That rate covers the time that the trailer waits at its origin or destination. There is a separate linehaul charge when the trailer moves on the track.

The railroads also benefit from the REZ-1 program because it eliminates so-called "free time." In the past, IMCs often were granted a grace period, or "free time," during which they were not charged for holding the equipment. Because the rental clock starts ticking once the reservation time is confirmed, the REZ-1 program encourages IMCS to take and return equipment more promptly, Habeck says. "The free time does not give anyone incentive to turn equipment fast. The idea is to increase asset utilization through this program."

At present, IMCs can make reservations and view their charges online. Habeck says the program will be expanded in the next three months to allow IMCs to obtain their freight bills as well.