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Short Line Data Systems Inc. ROCSTM Update – Fall 2008
Website: www.sdsrocs.com
Greetings (belated as they might be) –
It has been a busy couple of months, and while it has always been our goal to write a new update every month, sometimes the calendar is not your friend. That being said, this update will cover the months of September, October, and November, and we plan to return to the regular monthly updates in December.
In this update we will cover the ASLRRA regional meetings, the changeover to the new car hire payment system, updates to Dispatch, and some other projects that we are working on.
ASLRRA Regional Meetings
We have recovered from the “ASLRRA Fall Tour 2008,” which covered three cities in a five week period, and while it was great seeing everyone and getting the chance to talk about what was going on with SDS, it was a lot of running around in a short period of time. Each of the programs reflected the different realities of the geographic regions, and presented a wide scope of information covering most parts of railroading today. I was honored to speak about what were the technical reasons behind the high fuel efficiency of railroads, as well as update the members about the latest goings on with the industry radio changeover that will be taking place over the next five years.
The venues for the meetings were as strong as the programs. Charlotte (world financial issues aside) is one of the major banking centers of the south and a beautiful city. New Orleans is a favorite destination of ours, and it didn’t hurt that the Hotel Monteleone was across the street from one of our favorite restaurants. It was our first trip to Williamsburg, and the staff of the Williamsburg Lodge made the meeting one of the best regional meetings that we had ever been to.
We have been attending the ASLRRA regional meetings for ten years now, and if you compare what was offered in the late nineties versus what is offered today, you are getting more in a regional meeting today than what was presented in an annual meeting back then (of course you don’t have the exhibits at the regionals). Our thanks to the ASLRRA staff for preparing a great slate of meetings, and to each of the conference committees for putting together such strong programs.
ROCS V11 and RCH Car Hire
As has been mentioned in our previous updates, we have been rolling out Version 11 of ROCS to the users, and while we have been going through the usual issues associated with the individual setups of each customer, the rollout has gone smoothly. We have run into some issues regarding the new communications package, Robo-FTPTM, conflicting with some user’s antivirus software, however we have been working through the issues and have had good results with the new package.
The changeover to the RCH car hire payments has taken place, and while there were some bumps during the first two months of payments with a couple of our users, as a whole the system has worked as advertised, and where there were issues, they have been resolved. We have also revised the paper reports, and while they are not required in many cases now, they are still available to the users if they are needed.
ROCSDispatch
As Version 6 of ROCSDispatchTM continues to perform well, we have concentrated on small individual changes to individual user systems as they have requested them. We will probably roll up all of the small changes into a full version upgrade at some point next year, most likely after the mapping system has been built and fully tested. As for the mapping system, we have been looking at different methods of doing the integrated maps, and it is our intent that the system will be compatible with other company’s GPS data, so that Dispatch will show you everything on one display.
TRACCURATE
We have been adding new features to the ROCSScanTM reader interface software in TRACCURATETM, most of which improve the data available to other traffic management systems, like ROCS. We are also putting some traffic management features into ROCSScan, which will allow you to do some traffic handling before exporting the data to your TMS. As a reminder, the TRACCURATE data is compatible with all of the traffic management systems out there, so you don’t have to be a ROCS user to take advantage of all of the features of TRACCURATE.
With the price and performance advantages of TRACCURATE, there are many uses for the system other than just regular AEI. You can use the system as an in plant yard manager, keeping track of when cars were switched to you from your delivering railroad, which can help you manage demurrage costs. When combined with multiple readers the system can be used for inventory and locations within a yard or plant. In addition, a multiple reader array can be used to generate movements automatically through internal logic to reduce data entry into your TMS. If you have any ideas for other uses of the TRACCURATE system please feel free to contact us and we will show you how these tools can work within your needs.
Vacation
I will be on vacation from November 2 through November 9. As usual, I will be reachable at any time, but my access to a computer will be limited at times (try as I might, Holly won’t let me bring my laptop on Space Mountain). I thank you in advance for your patience.
Well, that is all for now. We will be back in December with the latest and the greatest.
Stay safe,
Steven Friedland President |
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