|
One...there were others as well...of my most brilliant ideas when i took over the claim department was to try to get claimants to quit filing claims under some certain amount...I can't remember what it was now 50 plus years later...based on the idea that their own "papework" ate up the amount they were going to get... That particular brilliant "IDEE" didn't go anywhere with customers who filed lots of grain claims...It was kind of this in my words..."If the girl who files claims wasn't filing claims she would be filing her FINGERNAILS so it wouldn't save the claimant any money for her to do less work and still get the same pay..
You mentioned grain door installation and other situations...Those things were all taken into consideration when our adjuster sat down with the claimant and worked out an equitable settlement...Some examples which would lead to compromise were...improper grain door installation. quality of the weights..weights were classified as "country weights" and Official weights...Most country weights were not much more than a guess...Official weights would be weights on government approved scale at destination. Defective equipment with evidence of leakage claims were paid at close to full amount claimed etc.
The settlement of grain claims...pre Staggers Act was a very "Arcane" and individual customer relations matter...Today with everything moving under contract rather than Bill Of Lading the carrier's liability has, I am sure changed...Staggers and contract shipping happened long time after I departed from the claims dept...I often wonder whether railroads even have a loss and damage claim department today.
Pete
-----Original Message-----
From: kirby@prospectortech.com [CBQ] <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> To: CBQ <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Sun, Mar 5, 2017 10:00 pm Subject: Re: [CBQ] Grain-Hauling Boxcars Pete:
I know stockmen would estimate "shrinkage" when shipping cattle, hogs or sheep to market. That was a fairly easy calculation based on distance and weather, the shrinkage basicaly coming from dehydration and lack of feed in transit. Grain shrinkage, I imagine, would be more complex involving the age and condition of the car, the quality of the installation of the grain door, the quality of the roadbed, the speed over the roadbed, switching including number of times and how violent the connections and I'm sure there are other factors that I haven't thought of. I was just curious if there was a rule of thumb that railroaders or grain shippers used to say it was a more or less accecptable level of shrinkage. Kirby __._,_.___ Posted by: jpslhedgpeth@aol.com __,_._,___ |