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I see alot of threads about people looking for decent paying jobs, but haven't seen too many mentions of logistics, so I figured what the hell, I'll offer my insight and maybe it can help a few people out. Freight logistics is easily one of the biggest industries in the world and has a variety of facets in which you (yes, you!), could work. With the economy on the rise and our generally consumer driven culture that's spreading across the world, a lot of stuff needs moved. I myself work in intermodal logistics. This means freight that is transported by a variety of different means, most often in shipping containers. I specifically work for a subsidiary of a major US railroad coordinating the movement of containers and truck trailers between the railroad and trucks. Dispatching, essentially. My company is what we call a third party logistics provider. We handle one component of supply chain management, and that's transportation. The vast majority of our customers are freight brokers, outside firms that are hired to go out and find means of transportation, warehousing, whatever. You need a license in the US to do this. We occasionally work with steamship lines as well, which is a whole 'nother animal. Intermodal is quickly taking over the industry. About 90% of goods brought into the US come in a shipping container. An increasing number of domestic shipments are being put in containers as well, or specially designed trailers that can be put onto a train. I'm fairly certain most still go over the road though. In my job, I mostly communicate with drayage companies, which are trucking companies that specialize in port/rail transportation. Drivers try to make multiple short runs per day instead of one long haul. As a general rule, my company doesn't dray anything over 200 miles. The customer basically loses all the cost benefits of intermodal transportation after that. I enjoy my job, but it can be stressful. The trucking industry is filled with shady, unreliable people and you're often forced to work with them. Some, on the other hand, are fantastic and will make your job much easier. I talk with customers about 40% of the time, but we have a department to deal with them exclusively. Same deal, there are good ones and bad ones. Freight brokers can also be shady in their own right. I rarely know what we're actually transporting unless I need to or if it's a restricted material (guns, ammo, explosives mostly). I could go over all the details, but it's a big, big industry, so I figure I'll let people ask their questions and hopefully myself or another poster can answer them. If you work in the industry, feel free to chime in.
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# ¿ Mar 3, 2015 16:12 |
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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 17:43 |
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Econosaurus posted:What is your average day like in this industry? 1. I work evenings currently. When I arrive, I get all my necessary software up and running first and foremost. Mostly tracking software and equipment software. Since we're owned by the railroad, we can track any container or trailer that's on it. Then I make sure everything has coverage for the next day. The daytime guys are usually pretty busy with at-the-moment problems during the day, so sometimes a load or two can fall through the cracks. I have several equipment related reports I run so I get those out of the way. I also pay invoices for repairs, so I do those as well. By the time i'm done all that, the daytime guys are out so I take over. I make sure drivers get there on time and let our customers know if they won't. I make sure all of our pick ups have containers for the next day. I make sure all inbound trains will be in and the containers will be on wheels for tomorrow's deliveries. I run another report to reconcile the listed locations of our equipment with their actual locations. This is a basic sample of my day. Occasionally you'll get the inevitable huge gently caress up that needs addressed and can take up all of your time. Other times you'll be scrounging for things to do (or just browse the forums ). The gist of my job is ensuring freight is moved on time. My job is a lot of on the spot problem solving. A guy shows up and needs a number to pickup and we don't have it, a tire blew out somewhere, a train got derailed (surprisingly common but rarely very serious), etc. For me specifically, I look after any repair requests that are made for equipment we're using, along with my manager. Most of that is determining whose responsibility it is to pay up, which can sometimes lead to conflicts with drays or customers. My job does require a good knowledge of DOT transportation stuff, especially weight limits and hazmat freight. We're assigned regions at my job as well. I look after the upper midwest as well as all of the south in the evenings. We're an eastern railroad, so we only go out as far as about Nebraska, but have affiliate railroads that go into Dallas, some parts of Canada, and down to Mexico. We also handle transportation for an automaker in the south which involves steamship lines. I only do handle this occasionally, we usually have dedicated staff on hand for it. This is probably a good time to throw this in. This job can be stressful. You're going to deal with lots of lovely people and you're going to do it alot. I'm able to manage my stress well and keep a cool head. If you want to do this line of work, you should too. There are good jobs here, but as always, they come at a price. 2. Very good. The industry grows year after year and I see lots of job postings. Alot of people in my company have gone up the ladder significantly after only a few years. My company will also pay me to go to grad school provided it's related to my job, which I'll be pursuing soon. Companies are constantly expanding and taking on new people. I haven't heard of layoffs in a long time. 3. I worked in a warehouse after graduating college. I started out picking stuff on shelves, assembling orders, that sort of thing. I eventually worked my way up to processing all the outbound orders. I was doing some late night browsing on Monster and found the job listing, so I said what the hell, seems like a good gig. Got a call back for an interview later that week and the rest is history. My job is entry level and required a college degree. My employers we're looking for some logistics experience of some sort as well. If you have a degree and did anything supply chain or logistics related, you could probably find a decent job.
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# ¿ Mar 3, 2015 19:14 |
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Ultimate Mango posted:What tracking systems do you use? What do you like/dislike about them? The tracking software we use is proprietary and was developed by the railroad. It's only usable when one of our containers is on a train or in a ramp (railyard). None of our units have GPS tracking. We have to reconcile what we see in our transportation management software with what we see on the rail tracking software. To give an example, a box is sent over via rail. While it's doing so, I can track where it's moving. When a container is laoded onto a train, our software logs what flatcar it's mounted on.The flatcar the unit is located on is scanned by hundreds of scanners positioned along a rail lane. As the train moves, the flatcar passes the scanner and tells us where it is. Once the train reaches it's destination, the software logs when it was unloaded, mounted onto a chassis, and trucked out of the ramp (we call it "outgating"). From there, I need to rely on my TMS, which tells me this unit is supposed to go to Lowtax's Discount Warehouse in Bumfuck, USA. Once I confirm with our drayage company that the delivery was made, I update our TMS. Is the unit actually there? Most likely, but I'm going by my dray's word. Once the driver is loaded/unloaded, he goes back to the ramp to ingate it, where I can track the container via my tracking software. Our tracking system is nice because it gives you a quick, reliable zero on the box you're tracing. The downside is that it's old as hell DOS based software that is kinda clunky to navigate, especially to someone like me whose first operating system was Windows 98. As for the CTP, ehhh, maybe. I consider myself to be more intermodal minded than straight trucking, but everyone uses trucks so a CTP wouldn't hurt. bytebark posted:I used to work in the rail industry (for a couple of railcar leasing firms) and this also rings true for that whole business. Never before have I seen so many people trying to screw eachother over (both competitors and some of your co-workers!). Oh god, gently caress the equipment game. The west coast ports chassis fiasco sums it up perfectly. Cicero posted:What kind of money we talking about? Can you ballpark it for a few of the more common jobs? My job is about as common as it gets in logistics. I started at $41,500 ($19.95/hr). After my yearly review, my first, I'm up to $22/hr. Most jobs start at around 38-42k per year. This is working for a third party logistics provider or a brokerage, mind you. Dispatching at a trucking company will likely pay less as these companies are smaller.
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# ¿ Mar 31, 2015 05:05 |
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Tokyo Sex Whale posted:This is trucking side, but can you talk about pricing at all? We don't buy our own freight that often. I got asked to estimate costs a couple weeks ago on some stuff and said "I'll have to quote it out, but here's what I figure" and I was embarrassingly wrong. Like, pretty much I got asked what a full load was from Detroit to Toledo and what most people were quoting was what we're already paying per pound for an LTL to Topeka. I've had this happen the other way too which is fine because when that happens everybody thinks I'm special but I cannot at all figure out if there's an underlying principle to freight pricing. I just want it to be $2/mile or something. This is tricky since our prices include both drayage and rail linehaul. To move a 53 foot container from Chicago to New Jersey is about $2000, not including anything like hazmat, detention, stop offs, etc. Freight pricing in intermodal is a little different since the vast majority the move is on the railroad and at a relatively stable price, with really the only variable being the fuel surcharge. We have a program that offers a set price for a door to door move that's priced according to current market conditions, but if a specific lane has relatively steady traffic, the price shouldn't fluctuate much. When you really boil everything down, it's all priced per mile. That's definitely how the drivers are paid unless they have an hourly arrangement which is rare. A trucking company might jack up prices depending on the facility they need to go to or the commodity being hauled, but they calculate the bulk of their rate by how many miles they need to cover. Local markets can play a big role too. A price to dray a load in the NYC area will cost substantially more than to dray a load in Kansas. Classic supply and demand.
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# ¿ Apr 12, 2015 14:32 |
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EAB posted:I'm a soon to be owner operator. I looked into intermodal hauling and man, it doesn't seem worth it. Not only are the rates worst than most other freight but having to do 2-3 loads a day would suck and the wait times at railyards and ports holy poo poo. I don't see why anyone but a megacarrier would want to get into the intermodal business. I was only interested cause it seemed like I could be home most everyday but doesn't seem worth it. It's all about getting into a good, regular route. Guys who have routine business do alright. However, the heavily cyclical nature of intermodal can, and at some point likely will, leave you in the dust. When Chicago was buzzing this time last year, rumors were going around that drivers were clearing over a grand a week. You had to call a week in advance to get a load covered. Now we got drays calling us everyday for work. Most drivers I've talked to said they went intermodal because their wives wanted them home every night. Otherwise, they'd be over the road. The ports are indeed a nightmare, especially west coast. Until the "pool of pools" gets up and running, I'd avoid the California ports like the plague. Most rail ramps are okay though. In Chicago, we've had good grounding times and plenty of equipment.
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# ¿ Apr 12, 2015 21:56 |
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ladyweapon posted:My company imports a lot and a majority of my job is dealing with the truckers / ports / terminals. Seattle/Tacoma rail is giant nightmare right now due to Port of Portland losing Hanjin (thus, everyone rerouting to Washington). Last I heard there was a ~4 week wait to get on rail and it's not expected to get better in the next six months. drat, sorry to hear that. The only work I do with ports is the drayage/rail moves we do for a certain auto manufacturer in South Carolina. Really really easy since we have an inland port to rail it to. Very easy to manage chassis that way. Is the 4 week wait on the rail end? Wasn't sure if they were putting up an embargo. I'm guessing it's CP? I've found that alot of the drivers are alright, but the operators can be scumbags. No offense.
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# ¿ Apr 13, 2015 01:11 |
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Veskit posted:What industry were you most surprised by how important freight logistics were to them? Junk mail. One of our best customers is a freight broker that moves a shitton of those flyers in the newspaper that you throw away on sight. We're talking about six 40,000 lbs. loads a day, atleast.
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# ¿ Apr 22, 2015 23:03 |
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Uncle Jam posted:How often is government oversight employed, like random checks for hazmat conformance, illegal goods, etc? For domestic freight, very, very little. You can put just about anything onto a container, make up a bill of lading for it, and nobody will ask twice unless you state it's hazmat. Imports/exports are a different story though since you need a licensed customs broker to do that, but even then there isn't much. See MisterTurtle's post about the Mercedes. All containers have a seal on the door that's put there after its loaded by the shipper. Said seal is not to be broken by anyone besides the customer unless something is wrong, such as a suspected load shift (when a dumb shipper doesn't block or brace their freight and it goes all over the place inside the container). Our ramps (railyards where containers are loaded or unloaded from trains) have company police that make sure the boxes have seals. If they don't, they call us looking for authorization to pop the thing open and make sure nothing is stolen. That's really the only time an outside parry will see what's in the box. Otherwise, it could, and typically does, remain completely unknown what's actually inside. Hazmat is extensively regulated but difficult to enforce. Unless the cops are gonna start pulling over everyone with placards on their trailers, there's really no way to tell if a driver is properly licensed. Overweight loads is where the government really cracks down since DOT scales are on pretty much every major highway. Driver's operating hours have also become a new regulatory target. DOT can audit trucking companies for potential service hours violations (14 hours of driving, 10 hours of rest. Go over, get fined).
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# ¿ Apr 22, 2015 23:24 |
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Rudager posted:I do the occasionally truck driving to the ports as a sidejob for the company I work for as a dayjob as the IT Manager, but I first started here organising containers into the terminals so I've been one of the lucky few in the world to have to deal with the container terminals as both a logistics coordinator and as a driver Jesus Christ. This makes the whole chassis/terminal issue at US ports look tame. The tiered carrier system seems like blatant favoritism.
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# ¿ Apr 22, 2015 23:44 |
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sbaldrick posted:I can answer questions in this thread too, I'm now a purchaser but previously I was a manager as one of the largest trucking firms in the world. When I worked there at maybe a higher level then George Zimmer, I made 6 figures which is pretty common in the industry. US based? Does it rhyme with JB Punt? (You don't have to answer that) Also, go on about the owner operators.
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# ¿ Apr 24, 2015 23:59 |
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sbaldrick posted:US based on paper, but the maroon and white bulk carrier. jB hunt is a poo poo company. Ah. Pretty sure I know which one. I've heard JB Hunt drivers are a ramp/port's worse nightmare. They have first pick on the good chassis at all our ramps, along with Hub We get whatever Flexi-Van or DirectChassis Link vomits up
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# ¿ Apr 25, 2015 01:20 |
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Tree squid posted:Seeing as the first job you got required a degree, do you find it worth it to pursue a degree in Logistics, or you could get in just fine without one? If I waltzed into the Los Angeles port (Which I would assume is impossible to just "Hey don't mind me!") what's the chance on getting an entry-level job the old school way by asking a manager there? I've got no warehouse experience, but I've been a Dairyman all my life, which has some sort of Grit cred of working hard and not minding getting dirty. You'd have to get in with the longshoreman union to work at any port, first and foremost. I'm not totally sure what the job situation is like for the guys with their boots on the ground, but alot of poo poo involving ports or railyards requires special training. Forklift, side lifter, gantry cranes, switchers, etc. all require licensing or cerification of some sort. I'd look into seeing if there's some sort of career training nearby for those things.
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# ¿ May 5, 2015 00:23 |
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lord1234 posted:I have a relatively large(for me) item I am trying to ship across the country. It's located in Massachusetts and I am in TX. Size size, its roughly 2 pallets of stuff that needs to be palletized/crated, and then shipped. Who do I call? I'm not a business, I'm just some guy trying to coordinate a shipment. Due to weight, I can't use UPS, so it has to be a freight co. I tried posting on UShip and it seems everyone wants it palletized first, and the shipper won't/can't do that. You'll want an LTL carrier. Means Less Than (truck)Load. How it works is they'll consolidate your freight with other small amounts of freight going to the same place so you can economically move small amounts across large distances. A vast variety of companies offer this service, though to be honest I couldn't tell you who to pick. It will definitely need to be palletized, however. Does shipper have a loading dock?
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# ¿ May 19, 2015 01:14 |
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No Butt Stuff posted:What do you base what fuel costs should be on? OPIS? Or the EIA reports? No idea, the railroad publishes a weekly surcharge rate that we then work off of in regards to our customers as well as our draymen. EDIT: it's EIA George Zimmer fucked around with this message at 23:21 on May 19, 2015 |
# ¿ May 19, 2015 01:17 |
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MassivelyBuckNegro posted:I work for the other big east coast railroad managing container terminals. Got a question for you, dunno if you can answer but what the hell: one our drays dropped a domestic box off a delivery out at a warehouse pool we manage, but the box/chassis was red tagged. Do you guys let red tagged stuff out the gate? The delivery the dude was coming off of wasn't mine(he was street turning the box to us) so I didn't know about it until I yelled at the dray to go and swap it out, but it seemed strange that the ramp would let a red tagged unit out the gate.
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# ¿ Jul 19, 2015 04:52 |
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Yeah, this is a cubicle heavy industry unless you're on of those brokerage agents that can work from home or whatever or you're the boots on the ground. That said, if you love solving problems, there's an *abundance* of jobs that entail precisely that. The new SOLAS regs are probably gonna throw a nice wrench in the mix.
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# ¿ Apr 4, 2016 15:03 |
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My ops manager can be a hardass but he absolutely knows how to spot someone passing the buck. Taught me a hell of a lot about how this industry just absolutely does not give a poo poo. Glad you didn't get caught up in the bullshit!
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# ¿ Apr 6, 2016 15:12 |
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Our parent company owns a fancy fishing lodge in Florida and I get to go to it next month. Apparently all the railroads have stuff like this? Fine by me.
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# ¿ Apr 20, 2016 21:12 |
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MassivelyBuckNegro posted:NS has a trucking company? id just pm you but you dont have plat Pstager90@gmail.com
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# ¿ Apr 21, 2016 02:47 |
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sbaldrick posted:They all do. Thought they gave up on that?
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# ¿ Apr 21, 2016 17:03 |
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CP officially backed off though. I mean, Hunter Harrison could start it back up whenever though I guess. My company used to be owned by Conrail, I think we'd survive a merger if it ever happened.
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# ¿ Apr 22, 2016 01:15 |
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Angry Lobster posted:How useful/desirable is being very fluent in Spanish in this industry? The demand of people fluent in the language in other areas has increased but I don't know if it's relevant in this industry. Definitely doesn't hurt. A lot of truck drivers speak Spanish as their first language, and I've seen a few job postings for dispatch positions that require fluency in Spanish for that reason. I know that trade has picked up quite a bit with Mexico, container ship wise. Might be something there, but I couldn't tell you for sure.
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# ¿ Sep 9, 2016 18:09 |
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Congrats! I'm still a measly coordinator so I'm afraid I can't help. Just curious, anyone working with the recent Hanjin meltdown?
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# ¿ Sep 27, 2016 15:02 |
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Don't deal with that so much since I work mostly domestic freight, but we get a fair bit of blind shipments and those always seem sketchy.
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# ¿ Nov 30, 2016 16:00 |
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Fair enough. The fun ones are where we aren't supposed to tell the shippers that it's going over the railroad. I always wonder what those guys think when they see a container roll up to the dock.
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# ¿ Dec 28, 2016 21:33 |
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I feel for you man. Your dispatcher sounds like ALOT of people that I've dealt with in the industry. Kudos to your optimism! We've been focusing more on the ELD stuff that's on the horizon and it is not looking good at all. I've talked to a few carriers who are banking on it being overturned before the December cut off
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# ¿ Feb 22, 2017 19:12 |
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Seconding the 3PL route. Doing this yourself will end in disaster, especially given the somewhat complex nature of what you're doing. In other news, I got promoted to an intermodal asset planning position with the railroad I work at, so that's nice!
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# ¿ Jul 6, 2017 02:44 |
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MassivelyBuckNegro posted:chassis or containers. or are railcars part of that group for your company, too? Containers mostly, a little chassis stuff here and there but that's technically under someone else's jurisdiction. Railcars are not in the picture for my job, thankfully.
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# ¿ Jul 9, 2017 23:41 |
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Moose King posted:I can't believe it took me two and a half years to find this thread. I work for a 3PL, which is a subsidiary of a large US-based railway. I used to be a scheduler, but a few months ago I moved to a broker position on an account that handles TL logistics for a large online retailer. We only do loads using 53ft dry vans, either from vendors to our customer or from one of our customer's warehouses to another. Oh hey rail owned 3PL buddy. I work for the railroad itself now, but I did pretty much your position for 3 1/2 years or so.
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# ¿ Jan 22, 2018 23:36 |
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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 17:43 |
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I've heard Watco is pretty decent overall, but nothing specific.
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# ¿ Mar 27, 2018 12:34 |