Union Pacific to fine truckers who are late or miss appointments

Starting in September, railroad company Union Pacific will start issuing fines to truckers and trucking companies who miss their intermodal deliveries at six west coast terminals.

On July 2, Union Pacific issued a customer announcement stating that the company plans to increase efficiency by introducing a new digital Intermodal Terminal Reservation System (ITR) at six intermodal terminals. The ITR system will replace the existing Gate Reservation System (GRS) at those terminals.

Because the new ITR system, “will more closely tie customer reservations to train capacity and terminal fluidity” truckers who fail to show up for appointments or those who fail to cancel appointments to remove containers are now subject to fines.

Union Pacific says that a reservation canceled less than 24 hours prior to gate cutoff will be assessed a $25 fee. A reservation requested, unutilized, and not canceled, will be assessed a $50 fee, according to the announcement. Union Pacific says that this “no show fee” applies to any reservation where the unit is not ingated by gate cutoff time.

Under the new ITR system, on-time drop offs that do not depart on the scheduled train will receive a $100 credit.

The ITR system will go into effect on August 6 at the following terminals: East Los Angeles, LATC, City of Industry, Lathrop, Brooklyn, and TacSim. Union Pacific will start issuing fines on September 3.

Union Pacific plans to roll out the ITR system at other U.S. terminals in the future.

You can click here for more information on the new ITR system and fines.