ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, October 22, 1996 TAG: 9610220071
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
Norfolk Southern Corp. and Ford Motor Co. said Monday they have reached a long-term agreement that will help the automaker cut its transportation time for new vehicles by as much as one-third and accomplish its goal of cutting order-to-delivery time to 15 days.
Under the new plan, NS trains will haul vehicles from Ford's 21 North American plants to four mixing centers where NS will sort the vehicles by destination and coordinate with other railroads for their delivery. Vehicles will be distributed to dealers from the mixing centers.
Ford is already the railway's largest customer, with eight Ford manufacturing plants alongside NS tracks. When the mixing-center network is in full use in 1998, NS expects to increase its business with Ford by roughly 60 percent.
The agreement is based on a pilot project in Kansas City, Mo., where NS demonstrated the effectiveness of a mixing center. In addition to Kansas City, other centers under the agreement will be in Chicago; Fostoria, Ohio; and Shelbyville, Ky.
The centers will have rail yards where unit trains can be received and others built. The centers are expected to handle about 3million vehicles a year.
``This concept has been proven out and offers us significant transportation and delivery advantages,'' said Raymond Pittman, Ford's executive director for logistics. ``We welcome the expanding partnership this project has forged with Norfolk Southern.''
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