When you hear the word “Railroad” do you think four squares on a Monopoly board, the thing that goes under your Christmas tree, or the blue steam engine your kids watch until they turn seven?
Are you interested in using a steel network that is interwoven into the fabric of shipping giants like FedEx, UPS and Amazon, but you don’t know where to begin?
Do the terms SCRS, FSAC and CIF ID seem like alien acronyms?
Before we were CAD Logistics, we were shortline railroaders—part of the 600+ small railroads that connect to the seven largest railroads across North America.
A benefit of being a shortline railroader is getting to work with your customers at all levels, from the origin of each shipment to the actual train crew who shakes the hand of your customer when they make the delivery.
We’ve been involved with every aspect of our customers’ shipments from beginning to end—we bring that experience to you.
Your Rail Opportunities
Rail comes in many forms—carload, unit train, intermodal, transload, international.
There may be multiple ways to integrate rail into your supply chain, so we’ll begin with an analysis.
Our analysis will determine where you can implement rail into your supply chain.
Planning
Planning to use rail takes many shapes depending on planned rail usage.
We know the North American rail network, we have relationships with transload facilities across North America, and we are well versed with the intermodal network—this information comes to you through our services.
Do you need rail equipment?
We work with leasing companies and railcar owners to provide equipment to meet your shipping needs, and also track the equipment utilization on a per-cycle basis.
What routes will your shipments use?
We’ll set up your shipping routes and help negotiate rates with rail carriers.
What is the cycle time for your equipment?
All of the above equals total cycle time.
Once a total cycle time is established, we’ll measure the cycle time against trip plan performance to determine pain points and address them as they arise.
Does someone say your rail siding needs work?
Customers often need to have their rail siding checked prior to receiving any railcars. We’ll make sure rail siding repair quotes are accurate and valid so no one takes advantage of your company.
Implementation
To release railcars onto their journey across the country, you’ll need to send an electronic data transmission (EDI) of a waybill and/or bill of lading into the digital rail space.
Every railroad has their own process for accepting EDI transmissions, and we’ll walk you through set up and ensure everything is functioning as intended so that your shipments are accepted.
Management
If you’re new to rail, understanding rail carload and intermodal movements is often a steep learning curve.
This is where we step in.
To properly manage your rail shipments, we monitor these and several key data points.
We use the aggregate of all data to provide daily reporting with ETAs for your shipments, and intervene with the rail carriers on your behalf when a data point indicates a call to action.
