A two-hour delivery window, three times a day, for four years
Line-side delivery is the hardest promise in freight, because the cost of being wrong is not a late box — it is a stopped line.
Corridor 9 exists because of this customer. A vehicle assembly line consuming parts on a two-hour window has no use for a service that is usually on time.
Why the shuttle is road and dedicated
Two decisions, both slightly against our own grain. Road, because over 137 km the four-hour rail interchange at each end is longer than the entire journey. Dedicated, because a mixed consist waits for other people’s boxes, and a service that averages well but tails badly is worthless when the tail is what stops the line.
The number
98.6% inside the window over four years, which is the highest figure on our network and the one we are least relaxed about. The 1.4% is around forty movements. Each one was a phone call before the lorry left rather than an apology after it failed to arrive, which is the only part of this that is actually within our control.