Overview of switching charges/allowances

Does anyone know where I might find a good overview of switching charges? As in, how they are applied, who pays, etc? I have searched various sites and haven't found anything terribly useful. I am interested in learning who pays for the switch and all the variables that go along with it. I am guessing that you bill the RR for switches that occur in your yard and the RR bills you for switches that occur on their track. It can't be that simple can it? If it is, then maybe that is why I haven't any information on it...thanks!

I am guessing that you bill the RR for switches that occur in your yard and the RR bills you for switches that occur on their track.

It depends on who "you" is. And it depends on whatever agreement is in place between the parties. Some switching is considered part of the service. If a railroad delivers a tank car to the tank car track, and a boxcar to the warehouse track, there is usually no extra charge. If they take a car from one track in the industry to another track in the same industry, that's an intra-plant switch and usually costs extra.

I am not aware of any agreements where a customer charges the railroad when the customer's crew respots a car within their own plant.

Switching charges are not generic. They vary from railroad to railroad, and from one customer to another on the same railroad. If you can provide more particulars to your specific case I'll try to help.

Thanks for the reply. It seems like a vicious cycle...I am attempting to educate myself so that I can ask intelligent questions. I work for a steel company...so why would we charge a rail company for switching cars (or maybe the term is "switching allowance")?

It's hard to say without knowing the whole agreement - and if you knew that, you would not be asking.

A steel mill is a bit different from a local lumber yard for example. The lumber yard gets a car - the railroad puts it in loaded, takes it away empty, the receiver gets a bill (if it's a collect shipment) and that's it.

The steel mill is a bit different. Most of them are large enough that they do their own switching. In most cases the big railroad delivers cars to a yard and the plant railroad sorts and delivers them within the plant as needed. It's possible that way back in ancient history there was some provision for the mill back-billing the line-haul road for that. Or, it's possible it's a more recent agreement - the outside railroad may have agreed to pay the mill railroad to pre-block outbound cars to save having to do it themselves.

Since you want to ask intelligent questions, I suggest some variation of the following: "Since the big railroad is the one bringing us the cars from far away, what service is that we provide for them and get paid for?" "How long has that arrangement been in place?" and (if the current arrangement has been in effect a long time) "Have we re-examined those arrangements recently to see if they still make good sense for our company?" That should open the door for an explanation without making you look ignorant.

Demurrage and per diem, are two railroad terms, you might want to search. Switching charges are set by contract, tarrifs, per diem and demurrage are set by the stb, although their can be a "local" interline, shipper/customer agreement, that might modify these. BRP laid it out for you. Shouldn't be too hard to follow along....