BIG DATA
STAYING ON THE GRID
How better railcar visibility can improve freight rail shipment management.
hen freight moves across North America’s major railroads, shippers need to know the location of their cargo and its status. Cars in motion frequently pass Automatic Equipment Identification (AEI) readers and other data collection devices. That information is instantaneously transmitted to rail industry systems and is available to railcar users in near real time. Though this system works well for most shipments, it’s not perfect. In the real world, visibility can fade for a number of reasons, such as when cars are shunted into yards or industrial facilities, or when they are on “last/first-mile” short line railroads. In these locations, shipments can essentially drop off the grid, and shippers become more dependent on sporadic 48 Railway Age // February 2021
manually generated reports and cumbersome tracing methods. These information gaps are frustrating for plant managers, retail operators and others who expect the seamless stream of location data that is now standard in the trucking industry. Most shippers depend on end-to-end supply chain visibility to manage inventory, staffing levels and storage allocation in a process that keeps costs low and customer satisfaction high. RAIL FREIGHT VISIBILITY STILL HAS GAPS Intermittent visibility of rail shipments can diminish rail’s competitive advantages, which include low per-mile transportation costs, superior sustainability performance and an excellent safety record. Fortunately, advanced information technology systems are in the process of filling in the gaps, providing
visibility that will be more competitive with highway shipping. A leader in these developments is Cando Rail Services, based in Canada and serving all of North America. Last year, it launched Quasar, a cloud-based GPS system that tracks the location of railcars in real time, from origin to destination. Heading the development and launch of Quasar is Corrie Banks, Cando’s Director of Logistics. She joined Cando following a stellar rail industry career that began with development of e-commerce systems for a Class I railroad. That experience led her to managing complex supply chains. “Through those experiences,” she says, “I formulated a guiding principle that supply chain systems—which are highly interconnected end-to-end entities—offer lots and lots of opportunities to improve both the associated operating practices and the technology processes.” railwayage.com
Cando Rail Services (all images)
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BY BILL FAHRENWALD, JAMES STREET ASSOCIATES
