1. Railcar 101 The Basics of Railcars: Car Types, Components and Rules
Maintenance and Shipment Management Importance to Assets
Charlene Martinez

2. DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar
Today’s Fleet Manager
Has many tasks
to juggle…
Tracking
Problem
Resolution
Auditing
Manage your rail assets efficiently, and you improve your chances of focusing on your core business.
Maintenance
Administration
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar

3. DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar
Technology
For help, many railroads, private car owners, shippers and receivers are turning to technology.
Technology can facilitate utilization in Fleet Management.
Today, there are many choices of Fleet Management tools.
Knowing what to look for and what is right for is crucial when searching the options.
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar

4. Railcar Asset Management
Two main areas of asset management are:
Shipment Management
Managing Railcar Shipments
Maintenance Management
Managing Railcar Repairs
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar

5. DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar
Shipment Management
Why should I track my fleet?
You know when your loaded cars will get to destination
You know when empties will arrive for re-loading
You know what cars are in exception status
You know what cars are experiencing delays
Measure how many turns your cars are making
You can be pro-active in problem resolution
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar

6. DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar
Shipment Management
What technologies can I use to track my fleet?
Use the railroad’s websites
Use industry supported tools, such as Steelroads
Utilize third party logistics companies to track your trains and cars for you on their tracking systems and you handle the problem resolution
Outsource the entire process to a third party logistics company to handle not only tracking, but problem resolution and measurement
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar

7. DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar
Shipment Management
Advantages of using the Railroad’s Website
Disadvantages of using the Railroad’s Website
No cost to you
Most up-to-date reporting of cars current location as reported by the railroad the car is moving on
Ability to show remaining schedule for movements on their line
Only reports moves on their line
Does not retain history
Does not show a complete picture of shipment movements
No ability to create management reports
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar

8. Railroad Website Examples
ShipCSX
BNSF
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar

9. DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar
Shipment Management
Advantages of using
Steelroads
Disadvantages of using Steelroads
You have to run the process to get the car location information
Does not retain your fleet information
Does not keep historical CLM data for car movements
Low cost
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar

10. Steelroads - Track & Trace
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar

11. DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar
Shipment Management
Advantages of 3rd Party Tracking Systems
Disadvantages of 3rd Party tracking Systems
24/7 CLM information
Complete CLM information for entire trip
Retain history of CLM’s
Have all your cars in one place
Some 3rd Party system have the ability to track Unit Trains
Ability to group cars
Can be expensive
Many choices with different levels of data integrity
Can be labor intensive
Training required
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar

12. DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar
Shipment Management
Advantages of 3rd Party Tracking Systems & Problem Resolution
Disadvantages of 3rd Party Tracking Systems & Problem Resolution
Use the expertise of Transportation/Logistics specialist
Use their relationships with the railroads to get problems solved
Leaves you the time to focus on your core business
Decrease knowledge of your plant operations
Loss of autonomy
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar

13. DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar

14. DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar

15. DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar

16. DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar
Shipment Management
How can I manage my fleet?
Develop an exception reporting process to identify when trains are delayed and new ETA’s
Actively push or expedite your delayed cars with the railroad’s customer service reps
Maintain log of problem resolution communications
Update plants and customers of ETA’s
Be “proactive”, don’t let problems linger
Create cycle time and average transit reports
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar

17. Cycle Times and Average Transit
Components of Cycle Time:
Loading Time
Load time in transit
Unloading Time
Empty time to return for unloading
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar

18. Cycle Time Measurement
Average Cycle Time - Overall by Fleet
All Origin – Destinations
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar

19. Cycle Time Measurement
Average Cycle Time – By Segment
Origin (Big Coal Mine) to Destination (Utility)
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar

20. Tracking and Cycle Time
What good is all this tracking?
Service reviews with railroads
Identify performance problem area
Provide solid historical transit estimates for planning
Document service guarantee failure or success
For private car owners/lessees = more accurate fleet size requirements
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar

21. Maintenance Management
Why do I need a maintenance management system?
Audit Repair Bills
Receive repair bills from data exchange
Highlight exceptions on the repair bills
Submit Counter Bill Authority through data exchange
View your EHMS windows
Retain car repairs in history
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar

22. Maintenance Management
How can I maintain my assets?
Use alerts and windows to shop cars for repairs under Predictive Maintenance
Dispute charges for second repair resulting from an Unclosed EHMS Window
Dispute charges for Exceptions on Car Repair Bills
Run analytical reports on railcars, contract shops and railroads
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar

23. Maintenance Management
Mechanized Auditing Benefits:
Consistency to ensure that all subscribers comply with AAR pricing procedures as dictated by the AAR/Railinc Pricing Program and Price Master File
Data Exchange minimizes the need to manually enter BRC’s prior to internal audit
Potential revenue recovery increase from improper billing charges
Facilitates paperless Re-billing
Extends the auditing capability to more types of audits with greater accuracy
Allows automatic separation of data required by industry for analytical purposes to identify repairs where owner’s permission is needed
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar

24. Maintenance Management
Maintenance History Benefits
Support decision to repair or scrap cars
Support decisions to shop car(s)
Provide a research databank to support technical and cost benefit studies
Increase the flexibility of retrieving data for special studies
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar

25. Maintenance Management System
Considerations for designing a MM System
Use of Railinc Data Exchange Procedures
Method for identifying exceptions
Retention of all repair detail
Method to include machine generated exception letters
Integration with other asset management systems
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar

26. DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar

27. DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar

28. DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar
Conclusion
Railcar fleets are expensive
Through Proactive planning and management
Costs can be planned for and budgeted
Cars can experience higher utilization
Emphasis on railcar ownership is changing
Private companies will have to own or lease cars
There are new rules in the industry, such as ATSI
Effectively managed, the private car owner can get the most value from their investment in railcars
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc Maintenance Management Seminar