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Union Pacific Railroad has launched a plant-to-port transportation and transload service offering agricultural product transfers from covered hopper unit trains directly to containers at the Class I’s Yermo, Calif., facility.

The service includes double-stack intermodal trains serving the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif. Union Pacific Distribution Services (UPDS) will provide door-to-door supply chain logistics services — including real-time product tracking, direct ocean carrier contact and transload management — to enable shippers to manage an entire freight movement through UP with a single point of contact.

Empty 40-foot containers moved from UP’s Intermodal Container Transfer Facility in Long Beach will be staged at the railroad’s Yermo facility prior to product arrival to expedite the transloading process. The plant-to-port service initially will target distillers dried grains (DDG) shippers, but also is designed to for bulk grain and processed grain products.

“This new unit train service provides a first-of-its-kind, plant-to-port transportation solution for our DDG customers,” said Paul Hammes, UP’s vice president and general manager-agricultural products, in a prepared statement. “The Renewable Fuels Standard mandates increased ethanol production through 2015 and customers will need export solutions to supply new co-products markets. [In addition], demand from Asia is driving DDG, grain and grain products export growth to the West Coast.”