Logistics - On the move

Are you stuck by or running from the "on time" bug surrounding the Railroad industry? Read on - this article might just be on time for you.

Continue reading "Railroads - Taking the "On-Time" Bug head on" »

Posted by James Wilson at 2:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I love the smell of diesel fuel in the morning!  Is this a famous movie line?  Is this from someone working at the fuel rack?  It is not from the shipper fuel procurement person who is seeing prices on the rise.  It is not from all of us who are watching the birth of new "democracies" in the Middle East that are causing the rise in prices.  However, it is an opportunity for all of us to save fuel by putting more trailer, container, bulk and boxcar loads on the railroads in North America.  Capacity is available on existing trains and there is capacity to add more trains and services.  This convergence of opportunity for shippers and the railroads is not one to be missed.

Continue reading "Railroads : Some Insights" »

Posted by James Wilson at 4:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Recent Quarter results from Class I US Railroads are promising. The economy over the past two years has forced all industries, including Railroad, to squeeze the maximum out of their systems. Organizations were able to do this more efficiently on their core competencies. Could they have run some of their non-core departments more efficiently? 

Continue reading "Can Cloud help Railroad during Recession?" »

Posted by Deepak Ilango at 1:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The railroads are the canary in the recession coal mine. The canary is starting to breathe a little easier as per volumes announced by the Association of American Railroads. Let's take stock.

Continue reading "Railroads - a status check" »

Posted by James Wilson at 5:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

With the ever changing and increasing demands from consumer groups, businesses are now required to make the relevant data accessible beyond the normal confined areas of fixed infrastructure. With "on-the-go" becoming the trend of the normal ecosystem, there is now a growing trend to empower the workforce across the board by making data accessible on the move. Herein lays the concept of "Enterprise Mobility" which allows extension of enterprise systems to the workforce on move. Such mobility helps enterprises improve productivity, enhance revenue by improved customer experience and overall enhances the brand value and customer loyalty.

Continue reading "Railroads - Mobility for Agility" »

Posted by Prem Jaisinghani at 2:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In follow up to Ashutosh Tiwari's blog of July 1, 2010 regarding RFID's potential role in the port/ocean part of container shipping I wanted to add my own two cents on the railroad movement of containers and chassis in North America. Let's take another insight into this dynamic topic.

Continue reading "Is RFID the right solution for Container Shipping?" »

Posted by James Wilson at 10:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Travelling across the globe, meeting transportation and Logistics business leaders cutting across railroad, shipping, forwarding, logistics, CEP the mood is positively upbeat.
While the jury is still out as far as whether the global economy is heading towards a double-dip recession or we will see anemic growth, LSPs (Logistics service providers) clearly are seeing volume uptick across the board reflected in robust growth in both top line and bottom line across the industry. Let's take a status check ...

Continue reading "Trends from the trenches" »

Posted by Venky Ananth at 9:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The trucking industry has traditionally been the leader in reefer transport. However, recent issues within the industry combined with innovations by rail movers have made a good thrust in increasing the market share and potential of bigger growths in this segment for the wheels on tracks. Let's take a peek ...

Continue reading "Reefer on Rails - should the truckers watch out?" »

Posted by Sudipto Sengupta at 11:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Freight transport across relatively small distance of 300-400 miles may be done economically by trucks, but for higher volumes and larger distance railroads are normally preferred. A more practical variation is Intermodal freight transport which involves the movement of the freight across different modes including rail, road and ship. Herein the actual freight handling is less. It's primarily contained in standard units (commonly referred as ISO containers) which are convenient in handling, storage and transport. This also assists in security and helps prevent damage to the freight. As per one of the statistics available if 10% of current freight moving on trucks is moved by train it would save approximately 1 billion gallons of fuel per year. This goes on to highlight the ecosystem benefits of such intermodal freight movement.

Continue reading "Railroads Intermodal - A train full of opportunities" »

Posted by Prem Jaisinghani at 8:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In this concluding post in the series on the criticality of GIS data for PTC (read parts 1 and 2 here), I discuss the importance of a robust change management process to keep the GIS data for PTC accurate and up to date, while providing agile enterprise wide data visibility.

Continue reading "Positive Train Control: Criticality of GIS data in PTC operations-3" »

Posted by Diptesh Mukherjee at 2:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

In my previous post, I talked about the importance of GIS data for PTC applications. In this post I continue discussing GIS data for PTC, with focus on building up a trustable, complete and comprehensive GIS repository for PTC systems to source data from.

Continue reading "Positive Train Control: Criticality of GIS data in PTC operations-2" »

Posted by Diptesh Mukherjee at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

How important is the Role of Asset Management in the Railroad Industry?

 

Assets formulate a critical part of any Asset centric industry like Manufacturing, Utilities, and Transportation etc.  Freight Railroads, in particular, are one of most asset intensive industries, wherein, on average railroads spend 14-18% of revenues on capital expenditures and maintenance expenses related to infrastructure and equipments.

Continue reading "Enterprise Asset Management: A Railroad Perspective" »

Posted by Gaurav Sharma at 2:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Positive Train Control (PTC), the FRA mandate that is probably the most talked about requirement for the railroads in North America today, has showered them with almost unprecedented challenges. Complex predictive technologies, cutting-edge engineering solutions, vast infrastructure investments, large-scale integration and interoperable solutions are making PTC a huge challenge. And the deadlines and sheer scale are adding to the mix.

Continue reading "Positive Train Control: Criticality of GIS data in PTC operations-1" »

Posted by Diptesh Mukherjee at 4:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

We have heard a lot about RFID Tracking of containers using different frequencies and operating at high (13.56-MHz) and ultrahigh (856- to 960-MHz) frequencies. RFID uses fixed location antennas which might be difficult to place because of legal and operational issues is unsupported in real world application....

Continue reading "Is RFID the right solution for Container Shipping?" »

Posted by Ashutosh Tiwari at 3:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I started discussing the interoperability issues, trends and challenges for Class I & II railroads in previous post. I discuss more on interoperability. Meanwhile, you tell us your thoughts, experiences and predictions for PTC and interoperability in Rail road 

Continue reading "Positive Train Control: Ensuring operating success through Interoperability-2" »

Posted by Diptesh Mukherjee at 5:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Continue reading "Positive Train Control: Ensuring operating success through Interoperability-1" »

Posted by Diptesh Mukherjee at 5:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I used to work for a railroad CEO who after managing his way through several business crisies learned that good data and processes could improve our results for our customers and shareholders.  He would point to numbers and outputs on our morning reports and "challenge" us to either fix the numbers or prove they were right and if they were right and bad then it was up to you to fix it now.  The good thing was he wanted us to fix the numbers to be right and prove it to him.  Once you did that, we monitored the numbers/results and figured out how to improve them.  He wanted them fixed promptly and you really did not want his help getting there, you wanted to do it with yourself and a small team, and get it done now!

Continue reading "Master Data: How good is it in your rail road company?" »

Posted by James Wilson at 5:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)