The convoys of trucks I see moving along the interstate for hundreds of miles - often with empty railroad tracks in parallel - are not moving freight from the trainyard to a local destination.
If you have a load going from Miami to Montreal, it takes 26 to 28 hours by truck not the 6 to 8 days by rail. What method would you ship with. Deliver it to the railyard, load it into the rail car. Let it sit for a day or two until enough cars are hooked up for them to make a dollar going in the direction your load is going. Then change engines two or three times, breaking the train apart and reconnecting it back up to allow the cars that are changing directions to be sorted in or out. When it reaches the destination city, unload the railcar, load it into a truck for local delivery. Is that what you would call efficiency?
In 1973 took me 39 to 44 hours to drive from one coast to the other depending on my route and destination. It took a train 12 to 14 DAYS to do the same route. Which produce would you care to have on your table?
You’ve heard of Amtrak I’m sure. Well they have priority on the tracks over ALL freight shipments. Ever seen a freight train sit for four hours waiting for Amtrak to pass. Why? Because the freight train has up to 120 cars and is over a mile long, has unionized crews and paying them overtime is not the way to make money so the trains sit until they have the time and space to run without swapping crews or starting, stopping, starting, stopping, starting and stopping while they juggle track space with a bunch of tourists.
I am amazed that we even have figured out how to get a freight train from one coast to another and do it in less than two weeks AND make money doing it!