GM Cleared Its Backlog Of Vehicles Waiting Rail Car Shipping
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Like the broader automotive industry, GM has faced a series of logistics hurtles in the last year that have prevented the automaker from shipping its stock of completed vehicles. That includes a shortage of autoracks, which lead to delays in shipping for tens of thousands of new vehicles across the industry. Now, however, General Motors says it has cleared its backlog of vehicles waiting on rail car shipment.
In a recent report from Detroit Free Press, GM’s executive director of Global Logistics and Containers, GM Purchasing and Supply Chain, Renee Wawrzynski, indicated that General Motors’ factory lots were cleared by the end of 2023 thanks to a series of high-level meetings between General Motors and six major Class 1 railroad companies. According to Wawrzynski, General Motors shared vehicle production forecasts with railroads, thus convincing railroads to purchase additional rail cars in order to meet the projected demand. The result is the addition of 400 new rail cars per month to the North American rail system, thus drastically improving logistics in shipping new vehicles to dealers.
According to the Detroit Free Press report, the broader auto industry is expected to see some improvement in rail transportation this year. The Automotive Logistics Executive Committee (ALEC), which represents 16 automakers total, including GM, Ford, Stellantis, Tesla, and Rivian, held meetings with railroad companies last year, sharing its collective new-vehicle production forecasts in a bid to increase the number of rail cars. The collaborative effort is expected to increase the number of autoracks in North America by about 5,000 units this year.
The shortage of rail car transportation last summer is estimated to have cost U.S.-based suppliers $350 million. Freight rail is responsible for shipping roughly 75 percent of new vehicles purchased in the U.S. The autorack shortage crises was partly due to the resumption of full vehicle production following the COVID-19 shutdown and microchip shortage, which railroad companies were not prepared to handle.
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Now they just need to focus on pre-sold orders for customers that have been waiting for months.
Agree.
I don’t understand why pre-sold orders aren’t given first priority like when I was at GM. From a customer satisfaction perspective, that had been the philosophy for decades. Obviously that’s changed.
I suspect, but don’t know this for a fact but I’d guess they’re doing mostly batch building of vehicles rather than build an order that deviates from whatever build combination they’ve decided to run in large volumes. It’s certainly cheaper and easier for them to do that.
In other words, they’ll run products down the line that are almost exactly the same which is fine for fleet or dealer stock but not from a pre-sold order perspective. Great for the manufacture from an efficiency, cost and quality perspective but not so much for the customer as you know.
Part of the reason I suspect they’re focusing on batch building is it would be completely consistent with Mary’s oft stated “winning with simplicity” philosophy. She did come out of the manufacturing side of the business as we know.
I wish you luck in getting your vehicle.
I ordered one at the end of June 2023, still waiting, trouble is, it’s not the dealer’s fault. 2024 3500 High Country gas motor.
I wish someone could tell me why i have had to wait 8 mouths to get a truck ? I still not herd when i could get one
My truck was built last week of feb. 2024. As of today 5 weeks later still sitting in Wentzville. WTF is wrong with g m.
Some of there posts (GM) are ridiculous and full of poop. It should not take five weeks to have it on a train to Canada. Rethinking my purchase. And try to talk to someone. Same form letter, talk to dealer and there in the dark also. Come on GM get it together. But if you want a hundred plus thousand car there’s lots of em!
Where are the 2024 colorados and canyons?
They are really missing the mark, I had one on order finally gave up. Dealership couldn’t get a build date, he ended up doing a dealer trade or I was going to pull the plug
What kills me is that I apparently can’t do a build sheet anymore, that you have to order packages, which is irritating not in part because in my area alloy wheels are stupid because of the craters in the road that eat them. Yet most options that include anything other than fleet sale levels force include wheels.
I’m getting ready to pull the plug on my order as well. The car has been built since December 12 and is just sitting waiting for transport. The dealer has also been unable to verify how they are going to handle the $7500 tax credit I lost out on last year.
BS. Trucks built in October and still sitting at plant waiting on railcars. GM wants everything built a certain way weather customers want it that way or not and difficult to get the engine they want. Less vehicles are being built but when too many were being built there wasn’t any problems getting them, they were built and sitting on lots in 2 weeks. Now it takes 2mo, 3mo, 4mo, 5mo, 6mo. Folks from GM tell all kinds of different stories that end up not meaning a whole lot. They’re political, it’s all about the $$, screw us.
@ Mike Duff, the Colorados and Canyons are sitting in an old farmers field in Lincoln county 20 minutes north of the Wentzville plant where they are made. Just drove by there yesterday. They bring dozens and dozens of truckloads a day right past my house. They already have thousands and thousands of them parked out in the country side. GM is full of crap. The issue is, they can’t sell the new ones, so they have to hide them out in the woods where the general public can’t see them.
I ordered a 2024 Z71 Colorado and it is sitting in the Bedrock Quarry Holding Facility with no explanation as to why.
loan is done and deposit was paid but no ETA for my dealer in NC
I know multiple employees who work at the plant where the trucks are made. They are all working overtime just to stash the trucks out in the woods. Still haven’t seen a single train at the plant either. I also haven’t heard anything about a parts shortage or anything like that. So your guess is as good as mine.
Our company has developed two groundbreaking patents, the Pro-Tech Group Collapsible Container, and the Bi-Directional Loader, designed to enhance safety, efficiency, and sustainability in transportation. These innovations work in synergy to reduce empty space, increase fuel efficiency, and significantly decrease carbon emissions. Our projections indicate that their implementation could save eighty million gallons of fuel annually across three rail lanes using autoracks.
One key area of focus is the transportation of vehicles using bi-level auto-racks. The lack of proper infrastructure for this process has raised concerns about logistics efficiency. To address this issue, we propose the implementation of the Run-Through-Power process system, inspired by the airline industry’s operational strategies. This system aims to optimize efficiency, minimize delays, and ensure a smooth flow of auto-racks transportation while getting them back to the assembly plants and distribution centers for reloading faster.
Another critical consideration is the potential impact on assembly plants due to these operational changes. To mitigate any disruptions, we recommend adopting a rolling four-day inventory strategy for vendors, which will streamline operations, reduce excess inventory, and safeguard against assembly plant shutdowns. This approach is designed to seamlessly integrate with existing processes at Assembly Plants.
By proactively implementing these strategies, we aim to establish ourselves as a dependable partner to the automotive sector and forge sustainable relationships with key stakeholders.