The transportation and logistics company operates in North America with trucking and intermodal services for supply chain management.
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There remains considerable softness in the intermodal shipping sector tied to Pacific traffic.
The total 2010 carloads plus the intermodal units are still below 2008 levels so the railroads have further opportunity for volume growth.
While coal revenues disappointed, the two bright spots for the company were automotive and intermodal revenues, which increased 23% and 11% respectively.
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Going ahead, we feel strong demand within the automotive, chemicals and intermodal segments will continue to fuel growth for the company in 2013.
Coal volumes slid 8% while intermodal volumes were down 5%, helping the cumulative measure fall 4% in Q4 over the same period a year ago.
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This means, among other things, an enhanced federal role in projects that cross state borders, including not only the interstates but intermodal freight and high-speed rail.
Paul Bergant, who runs JB Hunt's intermodal business, said his company began using Norfolk Southern in 1998 and now puts 250, 000 loads a year on its tracks.
The total volume levels for 2010 including carloads and intermodal units are still below 2008 levels and so we believe railroads have further opportunities for volume growth.
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The company said that improved shipments in all three of its major merchandise, intermodal and coal markets helped to put it on track to grow with the economy.
Yet Bill Zollars, boss of Yellow Roadway, America's largest trucking firm, says that poor rail services have forced him to put 20, 000 intermodal shipments each month back on to trucks.
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Alternatively, another segment intermodal freight has displayed encouraging results in the recent past and rail companies would look to cling onto this very segment to ride out the coal mess.
Weekly traffic reports also show intermodal freight, or the system of putting tractor-trailer boxes on trains for more efficient cross-country transport, was up 4.4% in the week ending Oct. 1, and up 1.8% so far this year.
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Specifically, CSX saw revenue per unit for the food and consumer segment (within agricultural) and for the automotive segment (within industrial) grow by 10% and 12% respectively, while coal revenues per it expanded by 19% while intermodal grew15%.
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The Jacksonville, Florida-based train and intermodal transportation carrier works with trucking and logistics companies to provide shipping services across 23 states in the eastern U.S. and Canada, reporting improved revenue and profit margins across the board for the fourth quarter.
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He is an acknowledged expert in the area of federal infrastructure budgeting and finance, having had an active role in the financing of each of the last three comprehensive surface transportation reauthorization bills dating back to the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991.
Elliott, the consumer advocate and author of "Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles and Shady Deals, " said he'd feel better about the TSA if it eliminated its Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response, or VIPR, teams at train stations and NFL games and instead stuck to airport security.
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