Freight transportation and forecasting methods

Business Operations/Forecast

Freight Transportation and Forecasting Qs

CSX is one of the largest railroad freight carriers operating in North America, and runs throughout Mexico and the United States. The list of commodities it carries is extensive and nearly exhaustive, ranging from chemicals and fertilizers to coal and other energy commodities to agricultural products. The carrier also transports military equipment and waste products as well as a wide range of consumer goods, meaning that a CSX train could easily be carrying almost any imaginable type of freight at any moment, and most likely is. The carrier's ability to move large amounts of freight across the United States/Mexico border has made it especially valuable to businesses moving commodities and other freight in both directions, which has also helped to fuel the companies shipping activities within the United States.

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A lot of the information contained in this article seemed fairly basic and repetitive. Forecasting is rather obviously about the future, but this is one of the main points stressed by the first page of the article. It is definitely very important for businesses to try to understand what the future will bring, but the article did not need to go so in depth into explaining why this is important, especially since the reasons provided were self-evident and surfacy: "[forecasting] enables management to change operations at the right time in order to reap the greatest benefit. It also helps the company prevent losses by making the proper decisions based on relevant information." These two incredibly broad effects of forecasting seem to cover pretty much everything without sharing a lot of useful information. Maximizing benefits and minimizing losses are the intended effects of most successful strategies -- indeed, they are the measures of success.

When the author gets into some specifics, however, the article becomes more interesting. Trying to forecast the details that might affect a specific line of production, for instance, could be at once more tricky and more useful than simply trying to figure out broad market fluctuations in advance. The responsibility to stockholders that the author mentions seems secondary in importance when it comes to forecasting; stockholder responsibility means attempting to maximize benefits and minimize losses (within ethical boundaries, of course). As this is already the stated goal of forecasting, the mention of stockholders is at best redundant and at worst an unessential piece of information used to make the article longer and seem more informative.

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