WINNIPEG (Staff) — In a bid to cut demurrage bills and clear elevator congestion, the Canadian Wheat Board has started trucking grain off secondary rail lines to inland terminals in Saskatchewan.
On an alternating basis, trucks began replacing rail car allocations on selected train runs in the province last week.
“It effectively increases the number of rail cars because it increases the efficiency,” said board spokesman Bob Roehle.
The grain is being hauled at the wheat board’s cost to inland terminals owned by AgPro Grain in Moose Jaw and Saskatoon. The cleaned and graded grain is then loaded onto unit trains for direct shipment to export.
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The program is being rotated through different areas to allow participating companies to continue meeting off-board delivery commitments through their usual rail car allocations and to avoid aggravating municipal road conditions.
Turnaround time reduced
Board officials say making better use of 100-car unit trains can cut the turnaround time to Vancouver and back to between six to eight days. It now takes 18 to 20 days.
That’s the best bet prairie farmers along the most congested rail lines have to get grain delivered in the current crop year. For example, the three points between Assiniboia, Congress and Mossbank, Sask. along the Canadian Pacific line, have less than one percent space available.
Overall, elevator space in Saskatchewan is running below 18 percent. The picture is slightly better in Alberta at 23.5 percent and in Manitoba at 25.7 percent. There, board grain movement was reduced due to fusarium contamination.
Program called too limited
But a director of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association criticized the program last week because it only included the two facilities, and because farmers weren’t offered the same trucking incentives.
Warren Jolly, who farms near Mossbank, Sask., complained the program means farmers pay twice for trucking their grain — once to their local elevator and for a second time when the board takes it to the main line terminal.
“Technically, they’re correct,” Roehle said. But the board official said the cost is small compared to the savings in reduced demurrage charges at the West Coast. “It’s the lesser of two evils.”
Roehle said the board has told all companies it will entertain “cost-effective” proposals for getting grain off the Prairies this year. The program could be expanded to include other facilities on the Prairies capable of loading 50- to 100-car train lots.
As for why farmers aren’t being offered the same incentives to truck grain past the local elevator, board officials said part of the program’s effectiveness stems from knowing what grades are coming into the terminal.
