Case Study - Norfolk Southern: Giving Customers More Value for Their Transportation Costs
Last year’s skyrocketing fuel prices made many of us look at transportation in a new light. As fuel prices rose, so did the prices of seemingly unrelated items, like groceries or building supplies. Often we don’t think about transportation—at least not until any problems that affect the transportation industry start hitting us in our pocketbooks. But in truth efficient transportation is what makes our consumer economy work. Without it, goods couldn’t be moved from where they are produced to where they are consumed. And as both production and consumption go global, the transportation industry plays an ever more crucial role in making sure the goods get where they need to be on time.
Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE: NSC) is one of the nation’s premier transportation companies. Its Norfolk Southern Railway subsidiary operates approximately 21,000 route miles in 22 states and the District of Columbia and serves every major container port in the eastern United States, while also providing superior connections to western rail carriers. The company employs 31,000 people and has 13 classification (hump) rail yards, 8 major system locomotive shops, 14 smaller division locomotive shops, and a total of 26 fixed facilities handling the servicing needs of these locomotives between runs. Norfolk Southern operates the most extensive intermodal network in the East and is North America’s largest rail carrier of metals and automotive products. Railroads are also responsible for 75 percent of all automobile transport. The fastest growing segment of the business is in moving containers to terminals, where they are picked up by the customers.
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