Piggyback Transportation for Pacific Northwest Cooperatives

Excerpts from the report: Rising transportation costs, coupled with a trend to small lot "hand to mouth" buying of mixed loads of processed fruits and vegetables, have been of increasing concern to cooperative and other fruit and vegetable processors in the Pacific Northwest. To meet the growing need for greater flexibility in product distribution and handling, many cooperatives have shifted from rail to motortruck transportation. Some cooperatives operate their own truck fleets to provide this service. A large part of the total market of Washington and Oregon fruit and vegetable processors exists in the Midwest and East. Operating motortrucks over such distances has proved costly. In many instances the high costs of long distance hauling outweigh the service advantages inherent in private motortruck transportation. Several Washington and Oregon cooperatives requested the Farmer Cooperative Service to study alternative methods for transporting and handling products shipped by these associations. A primary purpose of the report was to assist cooperative shippers and others in appraising the possible uses of piggyback transportation. Special emphasis was placed on determining the feasibility of piggyback operations, using shipper owned or leased trailers on railroad flatcars.