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Dive Brief:
- Bison Transport and Canadian Pacific Kansas City signed a new intermodal services agreement at the end of January.
- This deal is among the latest to be announced among intermodal transportation players that are focusing on cargo conversion opportunities to save shippers money and better position them to capture market share of growing cross-border shipping activity.
- Bison President and CEO Rob Penner highlighted the business potential of the CPKC partnership in a press release. “With Bison’s established operations in Mexico and our commitment to growing cross-border freight services in this market, the timing of this agreement is ideal,” he said.
Dive Insight:
Bison Transport of Winnipeg of Canada and CPKC said in the release that its increasing trend close to production in Mexico made the time right for the partnership.
“This agreement between CPKC and Bison Transport will create multiple synergies for customers as they benefit from reliable capacity and industry-leading service,” said Jonathan Wahba, CPKC’s SVP of sales and marketing, bulk and intermodal.
Bison’s fleet includes 3,000 tractors and 10,000 trailers and containers, which will now have access to CPKC’s 20,000 route mile network reaching major shipping destinations in Canada, the US and Mexico.
Convincing shippers that railroads have improved network reliability is an important step in shifting freight to intermodal transportation, Union Pacific President Beth Whited said during the Midwest Association of Rail Shippers winter meeting in January. noting that railroads have an opportunity to “make the pie bigger for all railroads.”
JB Hunt Transport Services CEO John Roberts said during a 4th quarter earnings call that intermodal suffered amid reliability issues with the railways, but this changed as speed improved in 2023. This was likely a contributing factor to JB Hunt intermodal segment recording 6% year-on-year volume improvement.
“As we’ve gotten up to speed in 2023, we feel like we can better compete for our customers in terms of the consistency in the transit model that customers need,” Roberts said during the call.
Schneider National President and CEO Mark Rourke said during a fourth-quarter earnings call that it was among the carrier’s priorities to grow its intermodal business, though he acknowledged that this will take time given the weak market freight charges.
“Our second strategic imperative is to grow intermodal profits, primarily by accelerating off-road conversion opportunities,” said Rourke analysts said. “That goal was the driving force behind the new alignments of our rail partnership with Union Pacific and CPKC.”