INTERMODAL UBERIZATION

The freight railroads are at a crossroads. Coal, the long-time backbone of the freight franchise that once amounted to 25% of all North American Class I revenue units, is gradually going away. The challenge thus becomes not only replacing the revenue stream, but attracting new lines of business that offer the same stability and consistency as coal once did. Intermodal containers are part of the solution, and Florida East Coast Railway has developed a system called EZ Buy to make ordering, loading and delivering shipments as effortlessly as calling up a Black Car on Uber to get to the airport or a night on the town. The name of the game is reducing transaction costs, from finding a driver to deliver an empty container to your door, to taking the load to your customer. This writer calls EZ Buy the Uberization of freight, and the reason is simple.