The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

Join over 80,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

Transportation Maps - Rail and Ship

MetalGear

Gold Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
258%
Jan 24, 2017
605
1,562
Narnia

YoungPadawan

Miles to go before I sleep
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
280%
Nov 7, 2015
498
1,392
30
Good stuff! I was just looking at this kind of stuff earlier today. I may be using the inland waterways for an upcoming project. (Grain transportation)
 

Kak

Legendary Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
493%
Jan 23, 2011
9,678
47,666
34
Texas
Rail and barge are often forgotten methods of shipment domestically.

They are both extremely efficient for moving very large quantities of material.

Check out "intermodal" carriers too they will combine rail and truck as efficiently as possible and take out the stressful moving parts you would otherwise be dealing with to keep your goods on track.

Bottom line. If you are filling up 53 foot dryvans, rail should be something to look into.
 

SquatchMan

Gold Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
383%
Dec 27, 2016
452
1,731
Nowhere
Europeans always say the US has a crappy rail system, which is true.... for long-haul passenger transport. The distances are just too far.

However, we have a very good rail freight system. Rail is especially great for transporting large amounts of coal, grain, scrap metal, cars, chemicals, military vehicles, and all kinds of heavy and/or high volume goods very long distances.

Intermodal is especially useful if you're shipping a large amount of containers from Asia to your warehouse on the East coast.

That map only shows Class I railways too. We have Class II and Class III railways that usually only operate a few lines. Those are useful for short-haul transport.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

MetalGear

Gold Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
258%
Jan 24, 2017
605
1,562
Narnia
Rail and barge are often forgotten methods of shipment domestically.

They are both extremely efficient for moving very large quantities of material.

Check out "intermodal" carriers too they will combine rail and truck as efficiently as possible and take out the stressful moving parts you would otherwise be dealing with to keep your goods on track.

Bottom line. If you are filling up 53 foot dryvans, rail should be something to look into.

Europeans always say the US has a crappy rail system, which is true.... for long-haul passenger transport. The distances are just too far.

However, we have a very good rail freight system. Rail is especially great for transporting large amounts of coal, grain, scrap metal, cars, chemicals, military vehicles, and all kinds of heavy and/or high volume goods very long distances.

Intermodal is especially useful if you're shipping a large amount of containers from Asia to your warehouse on the East coast.

That map only shows Class I railways too. We have Class II and Class III railways that usually only operate a few lines. Those are useful for short-haul transport.

I'm not on the shipping container level yet, but these maps sure do put things into a different perspective!
 

YoungPadawan

Miles to go before I sleep
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
280%
Nov 7, 2015
498
1,392
30
This past summer, I got to take a good look at the barge loading facilities of some of the agricultural big boys (Cargill, ADM) and watch grain and fertilizer be loaded onto the barges and watch as the seemingly-tiny pushboat pushed the barges. It's really a sight to see.

If sales are king, then distribution is queen. (Though distribution is arguably king in the commodity business.)

What do Standard Oil, Walmart, Amazon and Cargill all have in common? What is it about these companies that made them an unstoppable force in their industries? They owned their distribution!

When Standard Oil was getting started, Rockefeller pitted the railroads against each other so that he could get superior rebates on shipping his oil, which would annihilate his competitors. Later, he built his own pipelines to transport oil, which made the railroads pretty much obsolete for him, which gave him even further leverage to get favorable rebates.

In Sam Walton's autobiography, "Made in America," he goes into a bit of detail on how he crafted his distribution system, which gave him a superior advantage over his competitors.

Bezos actually took a lot of ideas from Sam Walton's autobiography on how he should craft Amazon and he understood how crucial the distribution portion of the business would be.

As for Cargill, it is the largest privately held company in the U.S. (I bet a lot of you didn't know that!) They use rail and barges, as well as charter ships to distribute their commodities to other countries. Which allows them to save large amounts of money, where they can then pay farmers better rates for their grain, which takes business away from the elevators that don't have that kind of a money-saving/making distribution system.

To make a long story short: If you want to create an unstoppable business, you don't want to outsource your distribution. It is an area where you can gain the most leverage.
 

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

Latest Posts

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

Top