Glacier FarmMedia – CN’s record-setting week for moving Prairie grain is impressive but it’s consistency that matters in grain transport, says the Western Grain Elevators Association.
“Even an amateur golfer can hit a hole in one once in a while, but the pros hit a good ball consistently,” said Wade Sobkowich, the association’s executive director.
CN Rail said it moved more than 806,000 tonnes of grain from Western Canada during the third week of October, exceeding its previous record by more than 50,000 tonnes.
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“We are very proud to have set a new record for the amount of western Canadian grain moved in a single week,” chief marketing officer Doug MacDonald said in a release. “We are confident that our railroaders will continue delivering results for Canadian farmers and all of our customers.”
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The record-setting week followed a strong performance in September of 2.64 million tonnes shipped, its second-best movement for that month, said CN.
Sobkowich acknowledged the railway is doing a decent job so far this year. According to the Ag Transport Coalition’s weekly report, CN has consistently delivered more than 80 per cent of grain shippers’ demand for cars since shipments began picking up in Week 6 of the current crop year, which began Aug. 1. It reached 91 per cent in Week 11, the first time in six weeks that it broke through the 90-per-cent performance threshold.
“We’re pleased that they’re performing in the way that they are. The key is to stay on top of it,” said Sobkowich. “From our perspective, if they can do 85 per cent or higher, week in and week out, then it’s acceptable. And when you get into the 90s, that’s what we call good.”
Of course, the grain companies his association represents want the railways to provide a rail car every time one is ordered, he added.
“I think you have to put it into perspective. When I make a telephone call to someone, I expect the telecommunications provider to have a line available for me to make that call 100 per cent of the time. But because of the way the rail freight market works, that’s not what we’ve grown accustomed to.”
CP Rail’s start to the shipping season was slightly less rosy, generally delivering fewer than 80 per cent of the cars requested by grain shippers, according to the Ag Transport Coalition, an alliance of seven groups including the elevator association and Alberta Wheat.
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“They’re struggling to get back into the higher percentages in terms of weekly car fulfilment,” said Sobkowich. “Once we start falling behind, it’s very difficult to catch up.”
He also noted that things were humming along last year at this time with hopper car deliveries close to, or above, 85 per cent until about Week 16 of the harvest year.
Then the proverbial wheels came off. The flooding in B.C. as well as cold temperatures and workers getting COVID-19 pushed order fulfilment levels to around 50 per cent for CP and the low 30s for CN. Neither railroad would fully catch up until the end of the year.
While it’s unlikely those conditions will repeat, shippers remain cautious that CN’s hot start is an indication of things to come.
“We need consistency week in and week out — it isn’t enough on its own,” said Sobkowich. “We need to get a week like that every week, between now and through the winter and into the spring, when shipments tend to fall off.”
But it is an indicator that CN has resources in place, he said.
“We hope that this is a sign of things to come and we continue to get press releases from CN congratulating themselves for a job well done.”
– This article was originally published at the Manitoba Co-operator.
