Rail can run on schedule and freight still arrives late. Vahooman “Shadow” Mirkhaef explores how other factors in the network can impact delivery consistency.
Rail reliability alone can’t stop late deliveries from occurring across the supply chain. Factors like equipment failures, driver shortages and operational processes at ports impact delivery in the final miles.
Vahooman “Shadow” Mirkhaef, who operates Cub Terminal in McCook, Illinois, has spent his career focused on operations after and between the rail. That includes equipment, staffing and infrastructure decisions that determine whether freight keeps moving once it leaves the rail line. Mirkhaef says that understanding why rail reliability doesn’t guarantee delivery reliability requires looking at drayage capacity, network coordination and the structural rigidity of rail itself.
Capacity Challenges Can Create Bottlenecks
Rail can move containers with near-total predictability, but the complexity of ports and terminals means consistency wanes during and after handoff. It depends on drayage capacity, and chassis and drivers aren’t always available to move freight the final leg immediately.
Chassis Availability
Chassis shortages can cause delays. Freight doesn’t always move seamlessly from the rail to the road, as chassis can sit for several days or more at ports.
Industry benchmarks set an ideal chassis dwell time of 3 to 4 days, but real-world figures can run far higher. A University of Arkansas study of the Mid-South Chassis Pool in Memphis found average dwell times of 21 to 26 days, for example.
The gap occurs for several reasons, including:
- Contractual chassis pool restrictions. Drivers can arrive at a rail yard with available chassis on the lot and not be able to use them because they aren’t in the right provider pool.
- Maintenance issues. “Equipment doesn’t take care of itself,” Mirkhaef previously told Tech Times. “If you don’t have the yard capacity and the M&R infrastructure to turn chassis quickly, you’re pulling capacity out of the network without realizing it.”
- Common chassis-as-storage practices. High rail storage fees or warehouse labor shortages can mean containers sit on chassis for storage purposes. While it may be a cheaper storage option, this practice keeps chassis out of the network, creating potential delivery bottlenecks.
Driver Constraints Create Last-Mile Limitations
The American Trucking Associations (ATA) has documented a persistent driver shortfall in the United States, one that limits all types of supply chains. The squeeze is felt even harder in specialist areas like drayage.
Out of the millions of CDL holders across the country, only a small fraction actually work as drayage drivers. These are the folks who move freight between different transportation modes, like hauling containers from a port to a rail yard or from a rail ramp to a warehouse. The pool is smaller because the job demands a strong working knowledge of yard procedures, local routes and much tighter schedules than typical long-haul trucking.
Broader industry pressure compounds driver constraints. Annual turnover at large carriers runs 90 to 95%. While a lot of turnover comes from drivers leaving one organization for another, fleets have to spend resources on constantly re-recruiting instead of expanding operations.
The Network Doesn’t Always Line Up Perfectly
Even when drivers and chassis are readily available, freight still has to navigate a complex web of interconnected schedules and inspection requirements. A small hiccup anywhere in the chain can create a ripple effect that throws off the entire delivery timeline.
Terminal Dwell Time Can Erase Rail Advantages
Terminal dwell time is the amount of time a container sits waiting to be picked up and moved to its next destination. This number has been climbing as freight volumes have grown faster than the supporting infrastructure can handle.
Take Chicago, for example. The area processes millions of intermodal containers every year. When demand spikes beyond what the terminals were originally built and staffed for, there’s almost no buffer left.
Mirkhaef sees this as a deeper structural problem, not just a temporary crunch. “Terminals were sized and staffed for a different demand profile,” he explained. “Now they’re being asked to perform at a level their systems simply weren’t designed for. That gap doesn’t close on its own.”
And these inland yards tend to fly under the radar. “Most shippers don’t think about inland yards until something stops moving,” Mirkhaef said. “But that’s exactly where the leverage is. When those nodes get tight, the pressure is felt both upstream and downstream.”
Appointment Misalignment Creates Unplanned Delays
Most rail ramps and terminals operate on pre-booked appointment systems, with windows for pickup and drop-off. If a driver misses a window, they often have to wait for the next opening, sometimes for hours or days. Delivery timelines are impacted even if freight arrives via rail on time.
Appointment systems can involve multiple parties, such as brokers, trucking companies and receiving warehouses. Each works from their own schedules, and a single misalignment can derail those schedules and trigger demurrage, detention and per diem charges.
Rail cutoffs add another layer, as they’re hard deadlines. When drayage scheduling isn’t tightly coordinated with those cutoffs, containers that are otherwise ready to move can sit for a full cycle because the appointment window and the rail departure didn’t line up.
Inspection and Maintenance Add to Delivery Complexity
Equipment moving through a terminal must typically pass inspection, including checks for:
- Structural integrity
- Damage that needs reporting or fixing
- Regulatory compliance
When inspection capacity can’t keep pace with volume, backlogs happen.
Deferred maintenance can also contribute to delivery reliability challenges. Research shows 80% of failures come with signs 30 to 90 days before a breakdown occurs. However, only 27% of fleets currently use predictive maintenance tools capable of catching those signals early, which can help support proactive repair that reduces delivery delays.
The Reliability of Rail Itself Can Create Delivery Challenges
Rail’s reliability can also be a limitation. A train runs on a fixed schedule along a fixed route, and by rail’s own performance measure, sticking to the schedule means success.
But what if that consistency doesn’t pay off past the ramp? Trucks can be rerouted to lessen or avoid backups ahead. Trains don’t adjust, so freight arrives regardless of the conditions awaiting it.
Mirkhaef points to operational readiness, not the rail network itself, as the place to manage that risk. “You can’t build a new terminal overnight,” he said. “But you can make sure the facilities you’re relying on are operationally ready for stress and that they can turn equipment quickly when the network tightens.”