Union Pacific Terminates Cold Connect Service

[John_Perkowski]

Union Pacific Shutters Operation of Multimodal Service Cold Connect

From the article, brief fair use quote...

On “Friday, May 8, we notified employees that Cold Connect, a Loup Logistics service that moves refrigerated products from the West Coast to Union Pacific’s warehouse in Rotterdam, New York, will permanently close and most Cold Connect-related positions have been eliminated. This decision was not made lightly,” South said.

Customers “were notified that Friday was the last day we accepted inbound orders. Our intention is to deliver on all product in transit, until it meets its final destination. A reduced staff will temporarily remain in position to execute these final commitments,” South said.

[Wayside]

This is not a good sign.

[bostontrainguy]

Why permanently? The notice seems to speak about a temporary change in consumer demand.

[J.D. Lang]

It makes you think that the guru's of PSR do not care about the obligations their supposed to have under their common carrier status. Strip the assets for instant payback then bail. I can see this as one more reason that there be howls for reregulation in the industry. There was great hope after staggers and there where some leaders that were there to grow their business. The rail industry had a bright future back then. Short term greed has ruined that optimistic long range outlook. So sad!

[Jeff Smith]

I got an alert on this, but John beat me to it. Shocked that they can just discontinue a service with zero notice.

[eolesen]

My guess is this wasn't performing well prior to COVID.

Trucking rates are falling like crazy right now, so it's hard to compete against point to point delivery with a multi-modal product.

[Rockingham Racer]

Both UP and CSX downgraded service some months ago. CSX began moving these trains on lower prioty Q trains than when the service first began.

[bostontrainguy]

My guess is this wasn't performing well prior to COVID.

Trucking rates are falling like crazy right now, so it's hard to compete against point to point delivery with a multi-modal product.

I keep reading about driver shortages.

[eolesen]

Shortages are happening because rates are crap. Why go out and burn money between trips if you're not covering your expenses?

Better to sit at home and watch Netflix than to be burning fuel and eating out every meal.