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| November 2006: Martin-Brower "Milestone in Rail Transportation" |
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For the company that distributes the frozen potato products, using rail cars equals millions of dollars in savings. Martin-Brower's Manassas area warehouse, the third largest distributor of McDonald's supplies, has become one of the few food distributors in the country that uses rail cars instead of trucks. More than five years ago, Todd Hopkins looked for a way to offset the rising cost of hauling thousands of pounds of French fries and hash browns over thousands of miles from Canada. He's the general manager of Martin-Brower, a company that has been responsible for distributing McDonald's products since the 1960s. Since Martin-Brower opened its facility on Balls Ford Road in 1979, it received frozen potato products in refrigerated tractor-trailers. Hopkins and his 190 employees were charged with distributing the food from the Martin-Brower warehouse to 635 stores in the Washington metropolitan area. Diesel prices reached record highs. Hopkins brainstormed. Meanwhile, 10 feet from the Martin-Brower facility on Balls Ford Road, trees grew between rail ties on a railroad spur that hadn't been used in 15 years. Then Hopkins took a risk - he decided to try shipping frozen food in rail cars. He made contact with Owings Mills, Md.-based Cryo-Trans, a manufacturer of hard- to-find refrigerated rail cars. After five years of cooperation with different railroad companies in the U.S. and Canada, the Manassas Martin-Brower facility eliminated its need for trucks when shipping fries and hash browns. On Tuesday, Hopkins and representatives from Norfolk Southern railroad, Canadian Pacific Railway and Cryo-Trans celebrated Martin-Brower's first full year of shipping the French fries and hash browns solely by rail. "It's safe to say that there are millions and millions in savings and efficiency," said Herman Haksteen, CEO of Cryo-Trans. "Not to mention environmental impacts - there's a lot of long term benefits." Shipping in rail cars is between 25 and 30 percent cheaper than using trucks depending on the distance traveled, said Robert T. Plains, director of marketing and sales for consumer products for Norfolk Southern Corporation. "This is an opportunity to take trucks off the road," Plains said. "There are savings and benefits to the community as far as congestion and wear and tear on the highways." Rail cars eliminated the need for about 1,800 tractor-trailers that would have carried the food between Manitoba, Canada and Manassas. And on congested Northern Virginia roads, Hopkins said he felt removing the trucks was a kind of civic duty. "To a certain extent we have a responsibility from that perspective," Hopkins said. "That's six less trucks a day." The potatoes used in McDonald's restaurants from Colonial Beach to Elkton, Md., to Harrisonburg to the Eastern Shore were all shipped by rail. How many French fries does Hopkins' 100,000-square-foot facility distribute? He wouldn't say how many pounds, but the Washington region eats one-and-a-half rail cars of McDonald's French fries and hash browns per day. Two rail cars are delivered to Martin-Brower a day so that means little to no room for error. Hopkins said the reason rail has worked so well for his warehouse is its consistency and ability to see the inventory as it travels across the country. GPS units on top of the rail cars allow Cryo-Trans to see locations of cars and to monitor temperatures inside. Technicians can monitor the diesel engines that power the refrigeration units that keep the food at a stable zero degrees. "If you have inventory visibility you can do more business with a smaller fleet," Plains said. Herman said there are more companies signing up with Cryo-Trans to ship frozen vegetables, raw potatoes, soaps and dairy products. In 2005 food products represented 5.4 percent of all goods shipped by rail, according to the Association of American Railroads. For now, Hopkins said his facility is the only Martin-Brower warehouse that leases its own refrigerated rail cars and next year they are upgrading. The past year has been so successful Hopkins said the potato products would be shipped in larger rail cars to increase efficiency. |