Did you ever have to make up your mind….

…pick up on one and leave the other behind; it's not often easy and not often kind; did you ever have to make up your mind?

The words were written by John Sebastian, the song was then made famous by “The Lovin Spoonful” in 1966.

I first heard that song back when I was a young man, and then later as an-almost-ready-to-retire transportation executive. I was giving one of my last classes at “Bourne University” at the offices at Best Buy when one of the junior troops asked me if I was ever so sure about something, so fiercely adamant about something, that I believed that my mind could ever be changed…only later to be convinced to reverse that position 180 degrees?

It didn't take me long to answer: “Yes,” I said. And as I told the story, that song kept playing in the back of my head. I really did have to pick one process up and totally discard the other, and it certainly wasn't easy—however it was kind, because it was the right thing to do.

Of course, I refer to my prior hostile belief that intermodalism, or rail piggyback, was bad.

That belief served me all through the tough times of the intermodal rail phenomenon of the 1970s and 1980s. I had been convinced that piggyback shipments were enormously susceptible to damages, unable to predict, complex to administer, and so impossible to trace that they became virtually invisible once they were tendered. Only whey they finally made their way to the consignee did I have visibility.

Sure, the price was right, but the level of service left so much to be desired that the overall value proposition simply did not fit in with the early adopters of just-in-time requirements. I drew all this as graphically as I could on the white board for my eager students.

Then I laid out the changes and improvements brought about by service-savvy railroad executives, and technology. I had to admit that the Railroads of the recent 15 years improved greatly the ride ability of their new articulated flat cars; they eliminated the “hump yards” and reduced switching at the Mississippi River, a move that greatly reduced damages. They built regularly scheduled unit trains on selected power routes and guaranteed departures and arrivals, thus improving their on-time predictable and consistent reliability.

Further, they listened to the customer and recognized that visibility to their shipments was extremely important to them. Then they actually set about to create and implement technology systems that linked the railroad to the customer and both to the customer's customer.

The railroad sales executives began to market this more reliable offering not only to the third party service providers (3PLs), but to the enemy of the system—the truckload carriers. Their marketing efforts soon spread out to the truckload carrier's customers, attempting to convince them that intermodal was an option that they could safely discuss with their trucking partner carriers. And the price was still right.

My admission to my class was that I had fought the advancements of the railroads for years simply because I didn't want to admit that I had it all wrong. Well, the railroads kept improving and I kept fighting, until as the song says…it's not often easy and not often kind. I could no longer view the railroad as I had so many years prior. It was time to change my mind.

Before I retired, my team had converted the entire upper half of our truckload carrier base to multi-modal options. We had a start date and an end date, and the truckload carriers were free to utilize whatever method they chose to accommodate those constraints.

Now, fast forward to last week: I was attending the annual RILA Conference in Orlando. Most of the movers and shakers in the retail industry were there, most of the service purveyors to the industry were also there in upper executive fashion, and it was a great deal like a class reunion—so many people to see, so many places to be and so little time. It is a quality event, bringing out only the best.

It was at the exhibit hall that I ran into my old friend Dick Hitchcock of the BNSF. We had kept in contact over the years and I have told him my story of finally “seeing the light” so many times that he was able to recite it himself.

Then I told him I was going to write this month's column not so much about what the railroad marketing teams had done effectively over the years, but more about what I believe they have yet to effectively stress to whoever will listen. I have for years described these efforts as “points of difference,” or the reasons why people make decisions that favor certain options. I list them on one side of the board with their relative value on the other, and count up the score.

In this case, I was listing all of the negative elements that have historically and are currently affecting the trucking industry—and as a result, the general public. These are issues that have been discussed in this magazine for years; the questions surrounding the driver shortage, fuel consumption, runaway fuel costs, highway safety, increased insurance premiums, deteriorating infrastructure, fuel emissions, and swings in capacity. These are all serious issues and have been for some time.

However, these problems could all be solved by the U.S. railroads. The railroads had the equipment to smooth out the capacity crunch, and by being able to move hundreds of trailers/containers on each unit train, were able to accommodate other capacity requirements of the carrier's customers such as seasonally driven crunches. The railroads save millions of gallons of fuel each year by providing the bulk of the over the road linehaul for their trucking partners.

The railroads take thousands of tractor/trailer combinations off the highways and put them on the rails; therefore reducing emissions, highway congestion, avoiding accidents and insurance claims, and protecting the fragile bridges and highways. The railroads have the ability to mitigate the severity of the driver shortage by handling the bulk of the linehaul duties usually handled by long haul drivers. It certainly isn't necessarily the complete answer, but I believe it's part of the answer, a significant part.

It's been a long journey from skeptic to evangelist, but it is now what I believe. The railroad industry has been sitting on a lot of answers to some very difficult questions for some time now. They very successfully touted on-time reliability, product safety, and creative technology.

Now, let's get down to business. Dig up some old song like I did and change your mind about your marketing focus. Tell everyone that will listen that intermodal is more than the conventional wisdom; it is about safety, congestion avoidance, driver productivity, and fuel conservation. Tell your customers a few new things that aren't so new. And tell them the truth.