ShipCarsNow has been working with a variety of customers and suppliers to create an efficient co-loading operation from the Northeast to the Midwest. Co-loading involves combining shipments from multiple customers onto a single rail car bound for a specific destination market. Once the vehicles arrive at the rail ramp, they are trucked to their final destinations.

Co-loading offers several benefits:

• Saves you money — With full rail-car pricing for single units, you can save up to 30% on transport per vehicle versus direct truck — and get faster overall transit times, too.
• Faster rail loading — Consolidating multiple customers' shipments (even single vehicles) facilitates faster loading of vehicles for daily rail car departures, which also improves overall vehicle transit times.
• Frees up space — Vehicles don't have to wait at the origin until a full load is assembled. Instead, they can be brought directly to the rail ramp until they're ready to ship. This reduces capacity issues at origin.

Co-loading in Action

How does co-loading work? A good example is our co-load lane from Newark, New Jersey, to St. Louis, Missouri. ShipCarsNow shuttles multiple customers' vehicles from Northeast origins to the Newark rail ramp, where we consolidate them onto rail cars.

The constant flow of vehicles to the St. Louis destination market allows rail cars to load and depart virtually every day. Once the vehicles arrive and unload at the St. Louis rail ramp, they are shipped by truck to their final destinations near St. Louis, Kansas City and Memphis. A constant flow of vehicles into St. Louis also helps the destination truck carriers plan for capacity and keep rates competitive so we can pass the savings on to you.

And, because vehicles ship in enclosed rail cars for the majority of the move, there is less incidence of damage from road debris or the elements, which provides safer delivery of your inventory.

How Can We Help You?

If you want to learn more about how co-loading could improve your transportation bottom line, give your sales rep a call. In addition to Newark to St. Louis, we have established co-load lanes out of California to a variety of Midwest destinations and the Pacific Northwest, as well as between Chicago and Southern California.