This fireside chat recap is from FreightWaves’ Intermodal Summit Wednesday.
FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: Delivering on customer experience during the pandemic
DETAILS: Elise Gosch discusses how customer needs have changed over the past year and a half and how Union Pacific is investing in its network and technologies to deliver a superior customer experience to its intermodal shippers.
SPEAKER: Gosch is the assistant VP of intermodal sales at Union Pacific.
BIO: Gosch has been with UP for more than 18 years and has held a variety of leadership roles in the marketing and sales, intermodal, bulk, industrial, and strategy divisions. In her current role, she is responsible for leading the international and domestic intermodal sales teams, with a focus on long-term growth and on UP’s intermodal customers.
KEY QUOTES FROM GOSCH:
“Capacity is king. Right now, velocity is how we’re going to get more capacity.”
“Planning horizons now look like a day, a week, a month, and so it’s imperative that our sales team and our team at Union Pacific arm our customers with the most up-to-date information we can, so our customers can plan the decision they need to make that day, this week, this month. That’s one thing that we’ve shifted.”
“In the inland terminals, the elongated street time is definitely a force to be reckoned with, and the processing power and speed wasn’t there for all of that freight. It still isn’t. We’re working through that. … We’re being creative and nimble and agile and opening facilities and using our geographic footprint for the benefit of all our customers.”
“If we can help the driver be efficient, it helps them, and it helps us. It’s a no-brainer for us to spend time and effort here. The driver experience — what does that mean? At its biggest, it’s investing in some gate technology that allows a rolling gate [that enables] a driver to drive right through, and you cut out time there.”
Click here for more FreightWaves articles by Alyssa Sporrer.
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