Good saves by Team BNSF provide ‘peak’ holiday performance

Long before holiday wish lists are made, BNSF and our parcel customers are priming for peak season. That’s the busy shipping season, which starts the day after Thanksgiving and goes through Christmas Eve. Volume typically doubles during this timeframe from what we normally see – and that volume must be delivered on time with tight schedules. 

The two BNSF parcel shippers, UPS and FedEx Ground, work closely with BNSF to ensure communication lines are open and issues are resolved quickly to make those delivery windows ahead of the holiday. Every effort is made to prevent delays, but our employees are ready to spring to action and make “good saves” ​when these priority trains face the unexpected, like inclement weather, derailments or equipment failures.

“In 2023, we moved over 43,000 loads for both UPS and FedEx, or about 85 million packages,” said Katie Hower, vice president for BNSF’s domestic intermodal. “The volumes were up 5 percent from 2022 with FedEx volume up 77 percent! FedEx is leaning heavier into rail and with this successful peak, we have an opportunity to continue to grow through over-the-road conversions. Thanks to both BNSF’s and our customers’ commitment to keeping trains moving to spread holiday cheer, we had a safe and successful season.”  

Among the bright spots of the peak season included BNSF achieving record level service achievements for UPS. Overall, our on-time performance for UPS was 96 percent, which exceeded our contractual commitment. Other than three days, every day during peak reported at 97 percent on-time or higher. We had the longest streak of daily on-time performance at 97 percent or higher when looking back over a 10-year period.

Our Peak Season Good Save Program recorded 50 “good saves” involving over 400 units. Peak season – ANY season – is a team sport at BNSF and Team BNSF showed up as we normally do to keep parcels moving across the network in time for the holidays. Below are some of the many good save examples our teams accomplished during 2023’s peak:

• On Nov. 24, UPS’ night crew sorting facilities were ready and waiting for a BNSF train’s arrival at Alliance, Texas. A railcar on the train carrying a load experienced issues and had to be set out 188 rail miles short of the train’s destination in Oklahoma City. There was limited time for repairs, so the load was removed from the railcar and trucked from Oklahoma City to the customer’s facility in Fort Worth, Texas, to make the delivery commitment that same night. BNSF’s Expedited Dray Team efficiently coordinated and monitored the truck move from start to finish, resulting in the load not only delivering on time but one hour ahead of published availability and ahead of the night-sort start time. 

• One of our tightest train schedules is the priority service from Los Angeles to Willow Springs, Illinois, outside of Chicago. A high-priority intermodal train, or “Z” train, moving 96 UPS loads was enroute near Gallup, New Mexico, when the train crew got an alarm that a locomotive was having issues. The train was stopped to set out the locomotive, generating a 3.5-hour delay that put peak volume at risk. Team BNSF rallied and developed a solid plan to make up time across the remainder of the trip, which included over 1,400 rail miles. The end result: the train made back the time lost, arriving at our Willow Springs facility almost one hour early!    
   
• In Amarillo, Texas, as a Z-train traveled west on the busy Southern Transcon, our primary route between Southern California and the Midwest, BNSF received notification from a trackside detector for a warm journal bearing on a priority railcar carrying a UPS load. The car was set out for necessary repairs, and once repaired, a special one-railcar train was created and moved to Los Angeles to ensure we met service expectations for UPS. 

“Our teams did a great job focusing on our customers, who sent thanks to everyone involved in 2023’s peak season," Hower said. “The advance planning, monitoring and communication we do with our customers is invaluable, but it’s our team’s willingness to respond to the unexpected that makes us grateful and proud – and ready to take on 2024’s peak!”