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Short Line Data Systems Inc. ROCStm Update – September/October 2007 Website: www.sdsrocs.com Belated greetings: First of all, my apologies for the delayed updates over the last couple of months. To say that my life has been busy is an understatement. The good news is that we have moved to our new residence, and have started turning it into our home. The bad news is that to do this has put me back into the home project mode, which generally measures weekends by the number of visits to Home Depot (this weekend it was three). We have also been on the road a bit, with trips out to the west coast and New England for the ASLRRA Central/Pacific and Eastern region meetings, and to a new customer that we will be announcing in the coming months. With all of the above, we still have been working on the systems for our customers, as well as continuing with the development of the next release of ROCS. ASLRRA Regional Meetings With the end of summer, the ASLRRA’s regional meetings kicked off with the Central/Pacific meeting in Portland, Oregon. It was really encouraging to see the number of people attending the meeting, and really great to see the number of railroaders there. A similar percentage of railroaders attended the Eastern region meeting in Burlington, VT. Some of my colleagues have made comments about the program that was presented at the meetings, and I really must disagree with their opinions (full disclosure: I had nothing to do with the planning of either meeting, while I have been involved with the execution of both of the meetings). In my opinion, it is the role of the ASLRRA to communicate to its membership both what they need to know to operate their railroad safely, and what they can do to operate their railroad in the most profitable manner. The program at this year’s regional meetings has been one of the most balanced programs that I have seen in the almost ten years that I have been going to the meetings, with sessions covering both what railroads should do to be safe and what they should do to be profitable. As for the Associate (supplier) members of the ASLRRA, the regional meetings are an opportunity to reconnect with their customers, and hear what is going on in the industry, so that they can tailor their offerings better to the needs of the short lines. I now step off my soap box. ROCS Version 11 We have been continuing our definition and build of features that will be coming in Version 11 of ROCS, which we hope to be releasing early next year. One item that we are working on right now is a redesign of all screens to allow users with regular monitors or the newer wide screen monitors. Our goal for this is to maximize use of the screen area with not forcing the user to use scroll bars to see everything on the desktop. We are also adding a Constructive Placement notification report to the wide selection of reports already in the system. This report is meant to be emailed or faxed to the customer on a daily basis to notify them what cars have been constructively placed. In addition to the above report, we are adding the monthly revenue by customer report that is a part of the Rating Database, and we are working on a version of the report that will break down the revenue by commodity or shipper, and one that will combine car counts and revenue. As with all of our reports, as one customer identifies a need for a report, we will make it available to everyone as soon as it is perfected. The last new item that we are working on is integration with our new AEI tag reader system, TRACCURATEtm, and its operating software, which we are calling ROCSScan. With the two systems, users will be able to automatically input lists of cars going past the reader for use by ROCS to create consists or events. We anticipate having a couple of test installations of the TRACCURATE system up and running in the next couple of weeks, and production models available shortly after licensing is completed. On the Road Again The good news for our customers (and my family) is that I won’t be on the road for the rest of October, and we plan on getting a lot of things done for everyone. We will be in Myrtle Beach for the ASLRRA Southern region meeting November 4-6, and the ASLRRA/AAR Safety and Operations meeting in New Orleans at the end of November. As always, we look forward to seeing everyone at these meetings, and please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at any time. Stay safe, Steven Friedland President |
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