Logistics Management

Dave Schneider

Planes, Trains and…
October 2, 2008

This fall has shaped up to be a series of “road” or “rode” trips. I had clients wanting me to see them, places to go to confer with likeminded colleagues, and groups to present to. It would be nice if I could do it all from the comfort of my office, but to the action is where I have to go.

For those of you who follow this blog, and some of the others who know me from times before now, I am a road warrior. I know Hartsfield so well that I can navigate from A to C in my sleep. I continue to drive to the same parking lot at PHL and park just about in the exact same spot each time. I know where the cheapest gas is to be had at LAX to refill the rental. I also know the highways of the Northeast, Southeast, Upper Midwest, Central Midwest, Canada; well, you get the picture.

I am past the point of travel panic.  Flight delay?  Just more time to hit the keys or work the phone. A few months ago I looked at the combined mileage that I have on the different airlines that I have had “Fragrant Flyer” accounts with and passed the million air mile point some time last year. That makes me just a piker to some of the folks that I know that have 1.5 M on just a single airline, still, that is a lot of time in the airframes. 

I passed the 300,000 miles point on motorcycles this year too. Literly hit another milestone that I had been successful in avoiding for 27 years when I hit a car operated by a blithering fool “driving on phone”. This summer I rode the rebuilt wrecked bike out to Wyoming and back, making sales calls on the way out and the way back.

Living outside of Philadelphia I have access to what I think is the best way to get to Boston or New York; Amtrak Acela Service on the Northeast Corridor. To get to clients in NYC or Long Island I can drive my car 2 miles to the SEPTA station, ride the regional into 30^th Street Station, hop onto one of northbound AMTRAK trains to Penn Station, and onto the MTA subways to just about any point in the city. Day trips to the city are a breeze, and the combined cost of the tickets is less than the gas and tolls to drive, let alone the cost to park. Better yet, no TSA checkpoints, searches, early arrival and waiting for the plane, and no weather delay. Finally, I can plug in the charger and yack on the phone the whole way up and back if I want.

When I was making my arrangements to go out to Denver for the CSCMP conference this October, I  considered a long motorcycle ride, but early October across the middle of America can be a bit dicey. So I spent time looking at the airline sites to purchase my tickets. I was shopping almost 6 weeks in advance and was still seeing the effect of low capacity on fares. Non stops flights that worked for my needs were sold out, or out of the question on price. I could get a cheap fare if I was willing to spend the entire day in transit and layover in one of 5 different airports that I know so well. But those fares were still not so cheap, and when I added up the cost with parking and ground transportation I was looking at over $800 in expense.

Not that I am cheap, but my 1/16^th Scottish soul said that this was really not working. Had to find another way so I considered the motorcycle again and ran the cost of fuel and a hotel and … stopped.  $700. Well, that was not such a bargain. I looked at the route and ran through the list of potential clients that I could visit along the way out and back. The ones that I am ready to visit were not along the path, and the extra mileage added time and cost. Two wheels would not work this trip.

The next day I was booking my tickets on Amtrak.com for a NYC meeting and decided to look at the options to go to Denver. If I was willing to spend three days out, and three days back on the bike, I could handle some time on the train. Now this was encouraging, $370 round trip coach. But that is two full days in transit. The sleeper roomette to Chicago was priced high, but the sleeper Chicago to Denver and Denver was just another $340, $710 for the round trip.

That was about the same cost as taking the bike, but two less days, and the time on the train I could… work. Computer and cell phone modem would keep me connected. A bit less than the air options, and the two days I would lose in transit I could recover with really being able to work. I could trade some comfort and really cut the cost, but that sleeper service looked like it would be fun.

So I am on the rails to Denver and back. I will let you know how it went after I make the trip.

“So Dave, what does this have to do with, like, Logistics and Transportation, or Change for that matter?”

Stop and think about the air market. As oil and fuel prices went up, many carriers dropped capacity and some carriers’ shutdown. What happened to non-stop fares to Denver after the hometown airline Frontier went Chapter 11? Capacity left the lanes and the prices went up. What is happening in the truckload freight market? Capacity is leaving, and while rates are not going up, yet, they are not dropping.

Now think what has happened to the long haul truckload freight market. Tonnage has left the roads and is now on the rails. I have a saying about being “stylishly late” for parties and freight. If you get to the party early, it is kind of boring until the crowd builds. The same is true with freight, if you have time the “slow boat” may be the better deal. Some shippers have found that using intermodal for that long haul may take a bit more time, but they get a much better value. My taking the train is not saving me much compared to the air fare, but I am getting a much better value because I can use so much of my time in productive comfort.

A final thought. I am choosing a much “greener” method of getting there. My motorcycle has a catalytic converter and gets close to 45 MPG, but still will create a fair amount of CO2. The jet? One heck of a foot print. The train, much less according to the numbers that I ran. 

And that makes a heck of a value proposition.

Posted by Dave Schneider on October 2, 2008 | Comments (0)