The Advantages of Rail vs Truck Shipping

Businesses and consumers are both increasingly prioritizing a strong environmental stance. Rail transit, compared to trucking, can significantly reduce the energy costs, carbon emissions, and pollution associated with transit.

• Since rail cars can hold three to four truckloads of cargo, a single freight train can haul a load that would otherwise require over 300 trucks.
• In the US, freight trains can move one ton of goods approximately 470 miles on a single gallon of fuel, compared to trucking’s approximately 134 miles per gallon of diesel. 
• Businesses that seek to change their supply chain in favor of sustainability are looking at rail as an eco-friendly transportation mode. On average, rail is four times more fuel efficient than trucks.
• Rail emits 75% fewer GHG emissions than truck shipping

This fuel-efficiency can also help to reduce transportation costs significantly, while also reducing environmental impacts. When it comes to environmental impacts of rail vs truck, rail easily wins out.

When comparing the speed of rail vs trucking shipping, the advantage goes to trucking. Extensive highways allow trucks to (usually) follow a shorter path between two points and deliver their cargo faster. Trucks are also generally easier to load and unload. However, the speed advantage of trucking over rail starts to fade over longer distances.Railroads utilize a network of track that includes large rail yards, which are a series of tracks for sorting, storing loading, and unloading of railcars. These vast yards are filled with railcars waiting for their next move, and these delays often mean rail is not as fast of a freight delivery mode when compared to trucking.Railcars also experience dwell time on a weekly basis. Dwell time refers to the amount of time a railcar spends waiting at a terminal to move to its next destination. According to the RSI Industry Yard Dwell report for the week of February 28th, 2024, railcars experience an average of 22.8 hours in weekly dwell time.

Flexibility is the main advantage of trucking. While railcars must travel along fixed rail routes, trucks have access to a much wider range of roads and highways. This means that trucks are capable of accessing many more loading and unloading points across the nation. Trucks can also find a direct path more easily, while railcars may have to divert around some areas where rail infrastructure isn’t available.