Pacer, CRST team up for drayage service agreements

In a move designed to drive intermodal drayage efficiencies and provide incremental capacity, freight transportation and logistics services providers Pacer International Inc. and CRST International recently announced they have inked multi-modal dedicated drayage agreements.

And CRST said it has established a separate operating unit, entitled CRST IMX, within its Dedicated Services, Inc. subsidiary that will offer this new service and market, sell, and operate an efficient network of intermodal drayage and other short-haul trucking services that use its on-site management, dedicated tractors, and qualified drivers.

Officials from both Pacer and CRST said that CRST IMX will initially provide incremental capacity to Pacer as part of its intermodal door-to-door product offering, with the companies planning to add 200 trucks this year in Chicago, IL and Salt Lake City, Utah. They added that CRST will dedicate drayage capacity using the latest model day cabs that will enable Pacer to service heavier commodities and be more eco-friendly and fuel-efficient. Another benefit they cited is that this collaboration will allow each company to attract additional short-haul business, which will reduce empty miles and better balance equipment flows.

“[This arrangement] provides supplement capacity for Pacer,” a Pacer spokesperson told LM. “It will allow Pacer to reduce costs while adding a high service dray alternative. Pacer is currently at a 62 percent usage ratio for our controlled fleet and this arrangement will allow us to achieve a rate above 85 percent by year-end.   Finding additional dray capacity and owner operators has become increasingly difficult in today’s market.  The CRST partnership allows Pacer to obtain the capacity it needs to fuel its growth in a cost effective manner.”

The spokesperson added that the cost improvement Pacer is expecting in some markets may exceed 20 percent for first 200 trucks.  And Pacer expects additional incremental future savings as it more tightly integrate our dispatch, planning, and short haul trucking market opportunities that increase operational efficiencies by reducing unproductive and empty miles.

In terms of shipper benefits of this partnership, the Pacer spokesperson said that CRST IMX allows Pacer to continue to enhance its best-in-class door-to-door intermodal product that its customers desire. And she said it provides Pacer with additional controlled capacity to serve its expanding customer base.

“Customers will see increased dray and containers capacity with improved turns as our dray efficiencies improve,” the spokesperson said. “Service reliability will continue to improve providing a higher degree of customer satisfaction. Pacer will increase our ability to handle heavier loads for customers who commodities tend to run heavier thereby helping to reduce their overall shipping costs.”