Page 16 - BusinessWest August 31, 2020

and we’ll take it the last mile or miles to our customers, if they’re located directly on our line,” he explained, add- ing that, for customers not on the line — those without a rail siding — RDS will take it the last leg by truck via two warehouses it operates in Westfield.
And in some cases, that last leg might be dozens or even hundreds of miles, he noted, adding that rail is a less expensive, more effective way to move material, and RDS enables cus- tomers to take advantage of it, at least for part of the journey.
“The number you’ll hear is that
four trucks equals one rail car’s worth of capacity,” he explained. “So if you looking to ship a distance or something
that’s very heavy, that’s where we pro- vide economies of scale.”
This has been a successful business model since 1982, and the company continues to look for growth opportu- nities in this region, he noted, adding that such growth can come organi- cally, from more existing companies using this unique model, or from new companies moving into the region to take advantage of its many amenities — including infrastructure. And Pins- ley Railroad owns several tracts of land along its tracks that are suitable for development, he noted.
For this issue and its focus on transportation, BusinessWest takes an in-depth look at PVRR and RDS, and
how those letters can add up to growth potential — for the company and the region itself.
Train of Thought
Levine told BusinessWest that, while he didn’t work at what he called the “family business” in his youth, he was around it at times, well aware of it, and always intrigued by it.
“When my grandmother was run- ning the business, that’s when they moved the headquarters from Boston to Westfield,” said Levine, who grew up in nearby Granby. “You grow up going to the rail yard, and you’re around these people; you’re definitely going to
be inclined to the business.”
But he didn’t take a direct route,
as they might say in this industry, to PVRR’s headquarters on Lockhouse Road. Indeed, after graduating from George Washington University in 2015, he stayed in D.C. and worked on Capi- tol Hill, specifically on transportation policy. He later moved to the private sector and worked at a firm advocating for railroads.
Eventually, he decided he wanted to be a part of the family’s business and relocated to Western Mass. “It’s been quite a ride,” he said while borrowing more language from the industry, not- ing that he started at PVRR and RDS roughly a year ago.
He came to a company that had a small, steady, and diverse group of rail customers, some that receive thou- sands of rail cars of material a year and others merely a handful of cars, and more than three dozen RDS customers.
He said his new job description is essentially to generate new business, and he believes there is enormous potential to do just that — again, because of the unique business model these companies have developed and the benefits that rail (or a combination of rail and trucks known as ‘transload- ing’) brings to potential customers.
As Levine talked about the sister companies and how they operate together, one could hear the drone of forklifts operating in the warehouse outside his office, which led to an explanation of how it all works.
“We have some rail cars here this morning,” he explained. “They got dropped off by CSX late last night; early morning, or 3 a.m. crew [at PVRR] dropped them off here. The crews have been unloading them, staging them, and placing them outbound on trucks to head off to our various customers.”
There are other operations like this, or somewhat like this, in the Northeast, he explained, but what sets this opera- tion apart, beyond the interchange with the two class-1 railroads, is the fact that the company owns both its railroad and distribution services.
“There are companies like our Rail- road Distribution Services that are directly on CSX’s line,” he noted. “But the difference there is they don’t con- trol the trains; I can pick up the phone and call the train operator and ask him when he’s going to be here with my rail cars, and with that comes a lot of secu- rity that your stuff is not going to back- logged or jammed up and that your deliveries are going to come on time.”
It is this security — and these ben- efits — that Levine is selling to poten- tial customers. And as he goes about that task, he has the Pinsly team, if you will, focused solely on the Westfield operation and its future. Indeed, the company, which operated short-line railroads in Florida and Arkansas, has divested itself of those operations, with
PVRR
Continued on page 44
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16 AUGUST 31, 2020
FEATURE
BusinessWest