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Rail sucks

2K views 9 replies 6 participants last post by  C141medic 
#1 · (Edited)
I am far enough through this process to attest that those that are fortunate enough to get their cars transported by truck have comparatively won the lottery.

For comparison my cars journey:
8/1 Transported by truck to storage at Lathorpe from Fremont
8/15 Transportation starts with shipment by truck again to Richmond rail hub
8/17 Loaded onto a train to DFW
8/27 Arrives at DFW
8/05 Car is expected to ship from DFW to San Antonio by rail.

Compare that to the truck that I ran into yesterday offloading at the San Antonio Showroom. The driver had come direct from Fremont in 4 days. Loaded at the factory / offloaded at the showroom.

It makes sense that its not only the longer transportation time, but going by rail only
increases the likelihood of the vehicle being damaged, purely by the number of times that the car is being moved onto and out of tight spaces. As for the truck I saw yesterday, the I can tell you that the driver was meticulous in inspecting the cars to ensure that there was no damage.

Compare that to the number of times cars are being moved that go by rail. My car was trucked to Lathorpe for storage for 15 days, it was then trucked to the rail hub at Richmond CA to DFW. It was then off loaded at DFW for the last 7 days and now is waiting to be on loaded on another train to San Antonio. When it arrives to San Antonio it will get a final truck to arrive at the showroom.

It would be very interesting to see if it were true that those people that have reported damage to their vehicles have a higher likelihood of transport by rail rather than truck.
 
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#2 ·
Car transportation logistics are really crazy. My cousin works at CN rail in Montreal and can tell you stories about cars and rail transportation....

Despite that it remains the cheaper method to get lots of cars from one coast to the moderst or east cost I’m encouraged to see more Teslas being totally blanketed like Audis lately. That will go along way to reducing damage but accidents still happen when you move cars around in tight quarters
 
#4 ·
Granted, it truly is the luck of the draw if you go rail or truck, and if you go truck if it is enclosed or not. I guess Tesla has too much need right now to require only enclosed transportation. The truck I just saw delivering to San Antonio was fully enclosed.

I would venture that comparing the pros and cons of the two modes of transport rail versus truck; rail can move many more vehicles overall more cheaply, at the cost of slower transport times, and a higher likelihood of the vehicle potentially sustaining damage by the sheer number of times it is moved during the process.

Wheel Tire Vehicle Sky Truck
 
#6 ·
#7 ·
Interesting tidbit - didn't think it would work, but just went and entered my VIN on that same site and it still gave the delivery information and VIN's of the 7 cars on the truck. This was delivery back in June of this year. My car arrived at the SC on a Thursday morning and we picked it up on the next Saturday. Pretty good turn around. It came with 4 other 3's and 2 S's. The VIN's on the 3's range from 200XX to 316XX.
 
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