RailBox Company (AAR reporting marks ABOX, RBOX, TBOX, and FBOX), founded in 1974, was an effort to address a perceived boxcar shortage in the United States in the 1970s. Under the routing rules in effect at the time, cars owned by operating companies were supposed to be routed back to their owning road as soon as possible or the host road would have to pay demurrage charges. This was believed to cause a shortage of available cars as empty cars would be routed back instead of being loaded with a load that took them farther afield.