OMAHA, Neb. — Union Pacific is doing its part to ensure the nation’s peak holiday shipping season meets with Santa’s expectations. North America’s largest railroad is operating on demand at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, and has been satisfying demand since May of this year.
“Contrary to recent reports that blame Union Pacific for ship delays at Southern California ports, we’ve been keeping up with demand since Memorial Day. We are handling record numbers of shipments, so trains sometimes don’t depart as scheduled, but we catch up quickly,” said Randy Blackburn, vice president-premium operations. “There are several factors involved in the port problem, but Union Pacific is not responsible for causing any vessels to anchor offshore.”
To illustrate the volume of port containers moving on Union Pacific, five intermodal trains would be required to handle the arrival of a vessel carrying 2,250 40-foot containers. It is the dock operator’s responsibility to unload and transfer containers to waiting trains — and the railroad’s responsibility to ensure cars, locomotives and crews are in place.
“We’ve made commitments to our customers at the on-dock terminals to not get behind, and we’re living up to it,” Blackburn said. “We prioritize the on-dock process to make sure customers get their cars and locomotives.”
Most containers arriving at the ports that are not processed on the dock are driven to Union Pacific’s ICTF terminal. At ICTF, trains have been running on demand since Labor Day.
“Our employees are doing a tremendous job making sure we continue to meet our commitments,” Blackburn said.
— PRNewswire-First Call
