How Rail Cost Control (RCC) Empowers Shippers — Even When They’re Not the Payer of Freight 

In today’s complex rail logistics environment, visibility is power. For many manufacturers and distributors, freight is billed and managed by suppliers, meaning the buyer never directly negotiates with the railroad. However, even when a company isn’t the payer of freight, understanding what rail transportation should cost remains critical to managing delivered prices and maintaining competitiveness. That’s where RCC comes in. 

Uncover Hidden Transportation Costs in Delivered Pricing 

When freight is prepaid, shippers often accept the supplier’s delivered cost at face value. Yet, that price includes rail transportation – an expense that can fluctuate significantly based on carrier contracts, market dynamics, and rate negotiations. Without access to those underlying numbers, it’s impossible to know whether the supplier is passing along a fair transportation charge. 

RCC provides the tools to change that. By entering the origin, destination, commodity details, and other known details of a movement, shippers can use Rail Rate Checker (part of the RCC program) to estimate what the benchmark rail rate should be for that route. This comparison allows the shipper to evaluate whether the supplier’s delivered cost aligns with market averages—or if hidden freight markups are inflating total landed costs. 

Example: If a supplier’s delivered cost is significantly higher than RCC’s benchmark rail rate for the same movement, the discrepancy often indicates that the supplier’s negotiated rail rate is above market, or that margin is being added to the freight portion of the sale. 

Use RCC to Confirm Supplier Competitiveness 

RCC’s Database Management System (DMS) provides a macro-level view of rates and movement economics. This allows shippers to: 

• Reverse-engineer supplier rates using known routes and delivery costs.
  •Validate supplier competitiveness by comparing rates against regional and national market averages. 
  • Strengthen negotiations by knowing whether suppliers’ transportation arrangements are optimized—or leaving money on the table. 

Armed with this information, shippers gain leverage in supplier discussions and procurement decisions. It transforms delivered pricing from a black box into a transparent, data-driven process. 

Track Rate Changes Over Time 

Markets evolve. Rail rates rise and fall based on carrier cost structures, inflation, and network changes. What was a fair rate three years ago may no longer be competitive today. 

RCC’s historical rate tracking capabilities allow users to: 
• Analyze rate trends over time for specific lanes and commodities. 
• Quantify how rates have changed across different carriers, origins, or destinations. 
• Anticipate future shifts and build cost models that reflect true transportation economics. 

By viewing multi-year rate histories, shippers can identify when suppliers’ delivered costs have increased faster than industry benchmarks—a strong signal that freight expenses may not be optimized. 

Turning Delivered Cost into Strategic Insight 

Even when a company isn’t managing rail contracts directly, RCC helps bridge the information gap between delivered cost and true rail market conditions. With this visibility, shippers can: 

• Ensure suppliers are obtaining competitive rail rates
• Improve total cost of goods delivered analysis for sourcing decisions
• Strengthen budget forecasting and cost control across supply chains.
   

In short, Rail Cost Control transforms passive freight recipients into informed supply chain decision-makers. 

Conclusion 

Whether you control freight or buy on a delivered basis, rail costs are a critical part of your total spend. Rail Cost Control empowers shippers to see what’s happening behind the invoice—to identify inefficiencies, confirm competitive pricing, and track long-term rate trends. The result: greater transparency, stronger supplier relationships, and better-informed logistics strategy.