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BNSF's LOGISTICS PARK IS ONE HUGE OPERATION September 4, 2005
Parsec Inc. is the intermodal contractor at Burlington Northern Santa Fe's Logistics Park, Chicago (LPC). In addition to the BNSF Hobart operation in Los Angeles, this rapidly developing facility will soon be among Parsec's - and the world's - largest intermodal terminals.
"We're on pace to do about 725,000 ramp/de-ramp lifts in 2006," says Senior Terminal Manager Brian Barnes. "And they're saying that by 2007, we're going to have the capability to do 1.5 million lifts a year."
One Big Start Up
Approximately 165 Parsec employees participated in the massive start-up, which was directed by General Manager Bill Pauls. Parsec employees traveled to Chicago from all over North America to help. Contributing people to the effort at some point during the transition were from: Hobart, LATC, City of Industry; Inman, Austell; Miami, Corwith, Columbus, Indianapolis, Detroit, Vaughn, Winnipeg, Vancouver, the LPC CY Yard, which was already a Parsec operation, and—even in the wake of Hurricane Katrina—New Orleans.
Parsec was no stranger to LPC. In the last quarter of 2004, the company provided extra manpower and equipment to help clear a backlog and assist in handling pre-holiday freight there. Since May of 2005, a Parsec crew of around 60 had been operating the stack-and-store container (CY) yard at the facility.
Thanks to the well-coordinated effort of all participating employees, the start-up, which took place over the Labor Day weekend, went extremely smoothly. "It was unbelievable," says Bill Stefanski, who, among other things, acted as transportation coordinator for the arriving participants. "We had people in there from all over our system—but when we started up, it was like everyone had been working together since day one."
Parsec Equipment and Improvements
The Parsec workforce arrived on the scene with their sleeves rolled up and ready to go—with a fleet of brand-new Parsec equipment. "We started coordinating the equipment even prior to arriving in Chicago," says Mike Collette. "We worked with an off-site location to store all our spotting tractors as they were brought out of Ottawa, Kansas, so they would be ready and staged for the start-up. We had a number of service vehicles and around 50 tractors off-site and propped with radios and OASIS equipment— ready to be combined with our other 35 units already at our container yard operation."
As well as tractors and support vehicles, Parsec is providing other yard equipment. "We bought three empty-handlers (side-loaders that handle only empty containers) and two chassis-rotators (which flip empty chassis so they can be stacked) to supplement what was already at the facility," Mike says. Parsec also hired a maintenance staff to look after the new pickups and hostlers. Adam Watts, the new maintenance supervisor, has a staff of 10 mechanics, and more will be added as needed.
Parsec is working with the railroad on improvements to the facility as well—an investment of around $10 million. These improvements involve converting the original CY container yard maintenance building to an administrative office and employee break and locker rooms able to accommodate over 600 employees, and paying for a portion of the paving for current expansions underway at the ramp.
"The BNSF asked us to partner with them to complete a segment of the LPC facility explains Parsec President Otto Budig. "We agreed to do so for two reasons: First, because it makes the work environment so much better for our people. And second, because it further solidifies the relationship that we have with the railroad."
The People Factor
Another plus Parsec could offer the BNSF was capable people that it was familiar with and trusted. LPC’s new management team includes many veterans from Parsec's Hobart facility. The railroad specifically asked that Senior Manager Brian Barnes—who was a terminal manager at Hobart, and Terminal Manager of Administration Jose Huerta—who was Hobart's office manager and is now LPC's terminal manager of administration, join the LPC operation.
Also from Hobart are Terminal Managers Scott Rubertus, who relocated in May to run the LPC container yard operation, and Sergio Martinez. Two former operations managers from Hobart, John McFarland and Andre Johnson, and one from Atlanta, Harry Brockington, are now operations managers at LPC. Parsec veteran Cruz Duran, who once managed Parsec's former Bedford Park operation and now heads the BNSF Chicago Corwith facility, is also the new safety manager at LPC. "In addition to the experienced Parsec people who have relocated, we have also been very fortunate in being able to hire many excellent local managers, and ramp personnel, who have assisted us tremendously and helped move the ramp along rapidly since September" says Bill Pauls. "These people include two of our terminal managers—Gregg Globke and John Wrobel."
An Enterprise To Be Proud Of
LPC has been breaking monthly lift records since the start-up, and the 24-hour, seven-day-a-week intermodal operation is continuing to increase staff as the terminal itself gets larger. As of mid-December, the operation was running two 12-hour shifts with a total of around 250 employees, including 50 out-of-town helpers—and anticipating increasing this number to around 500 people by mid April.
"We currently have three 8,000-foot tracks (about 1.5 mi long), and with the expansion we'll be seeing here, we'll have a total of six tracks the same length—probably by the end of next year," says Brian Barnes. "Obviously, we're dealing with a lot of growth, and so we are concentrating heavily on training and the new-hire process."
Even during this growth phase, the number of lifts keeps growing. In early December, Brian noted that the facility was handling around 50,000 ramp/de-ramp lifts per month, along with about 40,000 ground-stack lifts per month. "We differ from other facilities because we don't handle trailers. We're more like a port operation," he says. "We have around 1500 to 2000 containers on the ground here at all times."
Bill Pauls says that a special thanks should be given to everyone who has helped and is continuing to help make the LPC operation such an efficient success, including new hire Beth Rehn, the LPC office supervisor, and Kim Brzezniak and all her staff at the Chicago Regional office—one of whom, Nichole Vuorenma—has moved to LPC as office clerk there. "They have done a terrific job for us. And, again, they have demonstrated to our customers that they can depend upon Parsec," he says.
"We've been working a lot of hours, but it's worth it," says Brian Barnes. We've developed a great relationship with the BNSF. They really believe in what we can do. It's a huge honor to be able to step into a place like this—of this size and potential—with their confidence that we can do the job."
ABOUT LOGISTICS PARK
Construction began on Logistics Park in 2000. It is still rapidly growing and developing, so some of the statistics below may be already out of date. Here is information the BNSF published in October 2005—before the Parsec takeover.
What: Part of a development by CenterPoint Properties that will include a 1,200-acre industrial park of enormous warehouses. Wal-Mart will complete a giant facility there in mid-2006.
Type of facility: LPC handles marine shipments only—containers filled with international freight coming from the East and West Coasts.
Where: About 40 miles southwest of Chicago, in Elwood, Illinois—near two interstates and on the site of the former Joliet Arsenal, built during WWII. It is also adjacent to Lincoln National Veterans' Cemetery, the U.S.'s second-largest veterans' cemetery.
Total size: LPC yard: 558 acres
Intermodal usage: 302 acres.
Train-length tracks: With its 8,000 foot tracks, LPC can accept entire trains, reducing the time it takes for entry and departure.
LPC also includes: An automotive facility (not operated by Parsec) for loading/unloading automobiles on trains, and a large support yard that serves both the automotive and intermodal operations. With the Parsec takeover, LPC's former CY container stacking operation has been reconfigured and integrated into the intermodal facility.
Guided cranes: All of the facility's Mi-Jack cranes move along crane-guide overhead rails, so the driver does not have to steer the crane while moving it—an advantage when some of the cranes are 110 feet tall and 70 feet wide. Containers at the facility are stacked four high and five deep, and LPC's stacking cranes are equipped with a GPS tracking system that automatically updates the container's location with each move in the stack.
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