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Short Line Data Systems Inc. ROCS Update – August 2004
Website: www.sdsrocs.com
Greetings:
First, I must apologize for the lateness of this month’s update. I have just completed a string of seven trips in the last nine weeks, and am slowly getting my life back in order. Even with being on the road for what seems like forever, we have been working hard to get Version 9 complete and tested, and we are very close to completion.
New Customer
We would like to welcome Texas Central Business Lines (TCB) to the SDS family. TCB is located in Midlothian, Texas, and interchanges with both UP and BNSF. Our plan is to install the system prior to the ASLRRA Central/Pacific regional meeting in San Antonio. We welcome TCB and look forward to a long relationship.
Version 9
Testing is well underway on Version 9, and we are currently in our third round of data checks with Railinc on the Car Hire Data Exchange (CHDX) messages. We have only had the usual minor problems with the new messages, and we should have everything done in the next couple of weeks.
We are also going to add some additional fields in the hazmat section for outbound waybills. These were needed by the MERR for some radioactive shipments, so we decided to add them to the user systems during the release of Version 9.
The current deployment plan has the OCTR and HRRC receiving the new version when it is released, followed by CLNA and SRNJ a couple weeks later. Next will be MERR and ADBF, then POTB. TCB will receive Version 9 when we install it in October.
The Importance of Being Different
Being different is one of the most important things that separate a short line from a Class 1 railroad. Our ability to tailor our service to our customer’s needs has created our business niche, and every short line does not operate the same way. In the end the result is the same, just the path varies.
One of my favorite examples of this took place when the Conrail split happened in 1999. In the months prior to the June 1 startup, the M&E had numerous meetings with our Class 1 interchange partner (who will go nameless here). In each of those meetings, we were told how we were going to do business with them, and how this would trickle down to our customers. After the “instructions” were given, we would explain to them how their plans wouldn’t work, as it would negatively affect how we served our customers. The meetings would end with each side exchanging a chorus of “you just don’t understand, but we do,” and we would retreat to wait for the next meeting. Well, as we all know the split didn’t exactly go as planned. About three months after the split, just around the time that railroads started to get their act together, one of the people who we had been meeting with prior to the split called, and as we were discussing what had gone on over the previous weeks, the person admitted to me, “y’all railroad a whole different way up there.” In the end, the Class 1 ended up doing most everything the way we wanted.
Where this applies to EDI systems is that one size does not does not fit all. Each of the EDI providers has a system that works best for most railroads but not all railroads. Also, each provider can tailor their system to the user’s needs, to some extent. It is up to the railroad to decide which system can handle their needs best with changes that suit the users needs and ways of doing business.
Well, that is all for now. We should have new screen shots of Version 9 up on the website shortly, which will show some of the new features. Until then be safe, and enjoy the remaining weeks of the summer.
Steven Friedland President
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