Cold Cars
Another issue was finding refrigerated rail cars, which many eastern U.S. and Canadian railroads no longer offer. Cryo-Trans, however, builds and leases mechanically refrigerated rail cars, which made it a good partner for Martin-Brower.
The rail cars further appealed to Hopkins because they are equipped with two-way GPS systems, allowing the company to track and react to car locations.
Another required infrastructure change was made to the dock doors at Martin-Brower's facility. "We had to reconfigure the doors because the Cryo-Trans rail cars are about one-and-a-half times the size of regular rail cars," explains Hopkins.
Hopkins secured support from two rail carriers—Canadian Pacific Railway and Norfolk Southern—and the new program was underway.
Martin-Brower began its transportation conversion by shipping 50 percent of its inbound frozen potato product volume via rail. As the company soon found out, rail transportation is slower than truckload, so Hopkins had to make adjustments.
"Initially, it took the rails 18 to 21 days to deliver products, versus the four-day delivery time we had with truckload carriers," he says. "To address that time difference, we re-routed the rail cars. Over the course of four years, we've been able to peel five days off the delivery time."