CWB tendering, does it work?

[charliep]

The CWB has posted a newsrelease on tendering on their web site.

http://www.cwb.ca/grainmov/trans_agree/gmr1.shtml

[TOM4CWB]

thalpenny,

I really wonder how much the CWB is able to leverage from a grain-handling sector that is not considered to be profitable to begin with?

Do you not think that Canola, Flax, Pea and Lentil, Domestic feed barley and wheat grain producers will pay the price of CWB tactics?

What I am saying is that as long as we still have co-operative owned elevator companies, and they are not making money on handling grain, can you squeeze blood from a stone?

For instance the CWRS #1 high Protein shipment that was tendered to Thunder Bay at a $12.50/t discount, the total elevation that is normally charged, do you actually believe grain handlers can do your business for nothing?

Is it not more likely that the basis levels on non-CWB grains will increase so grain handlers can survive?

What about the CWB trick of over supplying cars after a tender has been awarded?

What do I mean?

I have 30 cars of a specific type and grade of wheat the CWB has left sitting in my elevator for 6 months, and I really think it is time to move it on out. Now I need another 20 cars to make a 50 car incentive rate with the railway, and with the contract openings I can likely attract the additional 20 cars, enough grain to fill the 50 car spot.

Now all along I have been asking the CWB for 30 cars to move this wheat, and the CWB has refused to allocate shipment for the last 6 months.

What happens?

I tender at say a $7/t discount to get movement, and the CWB accepts.

Not a week later after the CWB has issued the tender award to me, guess what?

Someone in the Winnipeg CWB now allocates the 30 cars I had been asking for all along for the last 6 months!!!

Now I have to dig up 50 cars of this same wheat, instead of 20, and the contracts are not open enough to allow it without trucking for huge distances!!!

I do not want to turn down these 30 cars, as turning down CWB allocation means I am perceived be a an unreliable CWB shipper!!! If I am an Alberta shipper, I will have to eat a higher freight rate if the tendered cars I now can’t handle go further east to fill the extra 30 cars I cannot access because the contract system won’t allow delivery efficiently to my elevator.

On shipping dates I understand if I tender today, and am awarded the tender, the CWB has the right to call the tendered wheat any time between the 20th of November and the 20th of December.

Now I do not know, and you will not tell me when the Contract calls will be opened, and you can plug my elevator for a month, with no storage, at my expense!!!

Is this efficiency and getting maximum usage of my elevator, and allowing me to logically plan ahead, deal with weather problems, grading issues ETC?

Haven’t all you done is restrict my operational flexibility by restricting deliveries through the contract call system, rammed cars at me when you knew I would not be able to source the grain, while penalizing me if I don’t deliver you the right grain at the terminal position?

Is this really the most constructive efficient way to smoothly turn cars and deliver the right product to our customers at the right time with the least work and storage and trucking costs within the grain handling system?