Improved Loading of Baskets of Peaches and Fresh Prunes in Railroad Cars: A Study of Damage and Cost Reduction

Excerpts from the report Summary: For many years, there has been extensive damage in rail shipments of tub-type baskets of peaches, fresh prunes, and similar commodities. The damage is associated with use of the conventional loading methods, called the upright end-to-end offset and crosswise offset methods. It is estimated that the total cost of this damage, including damage claims and the cost of repairing, or re-coopering, many thousands of baskets, exceeds $400,000 annually. Research over a 3-year period has shown that basket damage in rail shipments can be reduced more than 50 percent and important economies achieved in transportation and refrigeration costs by using the alternately inverted cross-wise offset method of loading, instead of the conventional upright methods. The research involved nearly 500 test shipments of peaches from Georgia, South Carolina, and Colorado, and fresh prunes from Idaho