How many Class 1 Carriers are there in NA? List their abbreviations
- there are 7
- UP, NS, CSXT, KCS, BNSF, CN, CPRS
What does Y stand for? Why does it occur? What are the 3 main take aways?
- Y - Constructive Placement
- Occurs when the carrier is unable to deliver the rail car due to a closed gate situation
- The carrier instead delivers the rail car to a local serving yard and then notifies the consignee
- The consignee must then schedule a date/time for the carrier to deliver the rial car to the consignee’s facility when their gate is open
What does Z stand for? Fully explain the activity
- Z - Actual Placement
- Signifies the rail car has been physically delivered to the consignee’s facility
What does W stand for? Fully explain the activity
- W - Release
- Signifies the rail car is available to be pulled by the carrier
- It does not involve any physical movement
- Typically the first and last event code to be reported during a rail car’s trip
What does X stand for? Fully explain the activity
- X - Pull
- Signifies the car is being pulled by the carrier to the main track to be joined with the rest of the train
- First event involving physical movement
Which event codes comprise an Origin Performance and a Destination Performance?
- Origin Performance: (W-X-P)
- Destination Performance: (D-Y-Z)
How do we define “Performance”
Performance is an analytical term that refers to the characteristics of a certain set of trip events.
List the three primary ways we gauge Origin and Destination Performance
- the order in which the events occur (if they even occur at all)
- the individual SPLC locations where each of the events occur
- the average time between each trip event
List each of the eight columns of a CLM feed and their significance
- CLM Date - date/time the CLM was captured by the carrier’s system. determines order of CLM feed
- ERPC - location of the reported CLM
- Event Code - indicates what is happening to the rail car
- L/E Status - indicates whether the car’s being reported as loaded or empty
- Carrier - carrier in possession of the rail car
- Train - train ID of train pulling the rail car. Can change over the course of a carrier segment
- Destination ERPC - rail car’s destination according to the carrier’s records
- CLM Source - the source (internal or external) reporting the CLM
What is demurrage? What is the most common scenario in which demurrage is encountered?
- Demurrage is a time-based charge that occurs when the carrier is awaiting a particular action from the consignee.
- Most commonly, it occurs when a railcar’s been CP’ed and the carrier is waiting for the consignee to schedule AP
What is a “No Bill” charge? What is the most common scenario?
- A “No Bill” charge is a charge from the carrier to the shipper that occurs after the railcars been released, but before it’s been pulled.
- Most commonly, it’s when there’s a billing issue on the BOL
What are the three main reasons CLM feeds are difficult to analyze
- Missing CLMs
- Duplicate CLMs (from different sources)
- CLMs reported out of order
What are the main differences between fleet and non-fleet cars?
- Fleet
- owned and maintained by customer
- often have 2nd, empty leg
- Non-fleet
- owned and maintained by carrier
- often do not have a 2nd, empty leg
What is a BOL? Why is it significant?
- BOL - Bill of Lading (EDI 404)
- Contract generated by the shipper and accepted/rejected by the carrier
- It contains important info about the shipment and is often used by QTS to track shipments
- Critical info includes routing, O/D pair info, weight, product type, etc.
What pieces of info make an Origin/Destination pair?
Origin (Shipper) + Destination (Consignee)
Draw a fleet cars transit cycle
Did you draw it right?
List the primary event codes
- W - Release
- X - Pull
- P - Departure
- A - Arrival
- J - Interchange Delivered
- railcar has been delivered to the interchange by one carrier and is ready to be picked up by the next. It doesn’t guarantee that it will, though
- R - Interchange Received
- The railcar’s been received by the 2nd carrier at the interchange
- D - Destination Arrival - The railcar’s approaching destination. Not in consignee’s possession
- Y - Constructive Placement
- Z - Actual Placement
What are the 3 components that must match in order for a CLM to post to Trip Events?
- Waypoint location
- Event code
- Carrier
The Trip Plan’s Event Code template is designed to do what?
- Assign anticipated event codes to waypoints along route
- It’s designed to mimic the primary event code occurrences in a transit cycle
PRD users determine statistical CLM patterns by using a QTS proprietary software program called _____________
Process Manager
Trip Events that share the same carrier within a Trip Plan are grouped together to form _____________
Carrier Segments
What is an A11 deviation or “gap”?
- An A11 deviation (1 of 140 deviations) signals a batch of reported CLMs don’t qualify as Trip Events.
- This Trip Plan variation can be due to 4 main scenarios
List the 4 main reasons that lead to A11 deviation scenarios
- Genuinely off course
- Inaccurate or out-of-date
- Alternate Trip Plan
- Blind spot in TFM
What are the 4 components of a Trip Plan?
- Carrier Segments
- Waypoint locations
- Waypoint & cumulative hours
- Event Code template
