Dominic Mazoch posted:Now that is a thought. A third party doing the part storage.
Dominic, I do not know if they still offer this but for a long time the railroads offered Storage-In-Transit rates. The tariffs had several restrictions, one of which the product could only be in storage for 365 days. Let me cite an example what these rates allowed. The canneries in California offer food chains canned fruits, vegetables and fish in one item truckload and car load quantities. It is unreasonable to think any given store could accept a truckload much less a car load of canned string beans. Or canned corn. Or canned beets. Food chains generally have a distribution center in each major market. Atlanta, Dallas, Little Rock, Detroit, Roanoke, etc. Even with the distribution centers, it would be unusual to ship a carload of canned corn to the Little Rock distribution center. The S-I-T rates allowed the final consignee to purchase a carload of canned corn and have it delivered to an en route storage facility which would act as a huge distribution center. Some food chains used the caves at Bonner Springs, Kansas or Independence, Missouri. A car load of corn, one of cut green beans, two of beets, one of Mandarin oranges, one of canned tuna, etc. would be unloaded. Weekly that storage facility would get an order for one carload of items going to the food chain's distribution center. For example (depending on what will be On Sale in one week) the car to Little Rock may call for 200 cases of corn, 200 of tuna, 200 of corn, etc. That car is then released for transit to the Little Rock distribution center. Without an S-I-T rate, the receiver would pay the California to Bonner Springs rate and the Bonner Springs to Little Rock rate for those two carload movements, let's say $1.90 cwt. The S-I-T rate shows a California to Little Rock rate with an S-I-T charge which could be as low as $1.50 + .10 = $1.60 cwt.
John in Lansing, Ill
