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Short Line Data Systems Inc. ROCS Update – September 2004
Website: www.sdsrocs.com
Greetings –
As we move in the fall, things are moving quickly here. We are releasing Version 9, and introducing a new product that should greatly improve event reporting and crew coordination – ROCSMobile. SDS now has a comprehensive family of products that can help you manage your entire rail freight operation, not just moving cars back and forth. From billing, settlement, car hire, demurrage, crew work orders, event reporting, customer service, and report generation, we have you covered.
In this update we are going to announce a new customer, look at Version 9 of ROCS and ROCSMobile, and discuss the release schedule of Version 9, as well as our meeting schedule for the next two months.
New Customer
We are happy to welcome the Tri Cities and Olympia Railroad (TCRY) to the ROCS family. Located in Richland, Washington, the TCRY interchanges with both BNSF and UP. We will be installing the system in late October, shortly after we install the system at the TCB in Texas.
Version 9
With the completion of testing, we are going to start releasing Version 9 to our customers. This is a major release of ROCS, with a number if new features. The most prominent new feature is the Car Hire Data Exchange (CHDX) message generation and transmission. This gives the user the capability to send in “exchange tape” car hire, which is the preferred method to do your car hire statements. The messages are sent in using FTP transmission, which is the same method in which EDI and TRAINII messages are sent and received in ROCS. The user only has to print out one report for each payee, which is sent in with their payment. The detail and summary reports are still available for users to review and print out for their own use.
We have also added the Expanded Movements Records (XMR) for each car record. The XMR allows the user to record free-form car movements that might be subject to billing, but fall outside the regular reportable car movements. This is especially good for cars that might move on and off spot at a customer and are subject to switch charges for each move.
A change that we have made to the system that is not immediately noticeable to the user but adds a great deal of system versatility and security is a revision to the system architecture. Where in the past the entire system has been contained in a single database, we have split the system into three linked database files. The first holds all of the procedures, forms, and reports for the system, while the second and third hold the car movement, waybill and other system information. The new architecture makes it easier faster to backup data, and keeps file growth to a manageable level.
As usual with a new version release, we have made layout and detail changes to many of the screens and reports. A notable change has been the addition of track length remaining computation in the TrackCap forms and on the switch lists by track. We have also added car types and two time counters to the Customer Status – Online Cars that show how long a car has been on line, and how long the car has been constructively or actually placed at a customer. An additional indicator on the timers shows how expensive a car is per hour, with ranges from green (under $.50 per hour) to orange (over $1.00 per hour).
More comprehensive view of Version 9 can be found on our website, or give us a call for an online demo of the system.
ROCSMobile
There has been a lot of discussion in our industry over the last year or so about event reporting, security and remote computing. We have been involved with all of those issues, as well as others, and we have come up with what we feel is an answer to many of the questions. We are now testing a version of ROCS that we have named ROCSMobile. ROCSMobile is designed to be used by your train crews, and enables them to do their work with less possibility for error through poorly copied or communicated work orders. We have taken the parts of ROCS that a crew should use, re-formatted the screens, and added some additional tools to help them perform their assignments. Data is synchronized with the desktop version of ROCS, reducing or eliminating transposition errors.
The other feature of ROCSMobile is the hardware it can run on. We have designed ROCSMobile to take advantage of the features of a Tablet PC. A Tablet PC uses an expanded version of Windows, and looks like a notebook screen without the keyboard. The user inputs data by tapping on the screen with a stylus, or writing on the screen, which the computer translates into typed data. The system is not limited to the Tablet PC, and will run on a standard notebook computer.
Another feature of ROCSMobile is its ability to transmit movement events in real time. If the computer is equipped with a wireless internet card (GPRS) and service is available, messages can be sent with a tap of the stylus, or the automatic transmission can be turned on, just like the original version of ROCS. If no internet service is available, ROCSMobile can store the messages for transmission when the data is synchronized with the main ROCS system.
A security and safety feature of ROCSMobile is the ability for your crews to carry a waybill for each car on or inbound to the railroad at all times. Crews can retrieve the waybill with a single tap, and all information is available to the crew. With the information at their fingertips, the need for radio waybills for missing cars or forgotten or missing paperwork is greatly reduced or eliminated.
With the addition of ROCSMobile to the SDS family, we have added an extremely powerful tool that can help improve your business.
Deployment/Meeting Schedule
With the release of Version 9, here is the anticipated deployment schedule: HRRC will receive V9 next, with the anticipated installation near the end of the month. OCTR and TCB will get V9 after HRRC, around the middle of October. Following TCB will be the TCRY, MERR, and CLNA. The other users will receive V9 shortly thereafter.
In the middle of all of this will be the ASLRRA regional meetings. We will be in Lexington, Jersey City, and San Antonio, and will be available to demonstrate Version 9 and ROCSMobile.
Well, that is all for now. As you can see it is a very exciting time for SDS, and we are looking forward to bringing these products into our industry.
Stay safe,
Steven Friedland President |
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