Status of the Railroad - A Message from Kenny Rocker, EVP, Marketing & Sales
Announcement Number: CN2024-30
Categories: General Announcements
Posted Date: October 31, 2024
To Our Customers,
As the month of October draws to a close and the end of the year is in sight, I am very proud of the Union Pacific team for navigating our strongest volume year since 2019! Our continued capital investment and dedication to our resource buffer allows us to manage surges in the market and mitigate the impact to our broader network.
This year you have heard a lot about our focus on technology with the modernization of our transportation management system and the new Invoice Management system where you manage and pay your invoices. We remain focused on technology and I am excited to tell you about our recently launched pilot focusing on the customer experience. We are making great progress on the first phase of our Customer Vision technology. Exception Management consolidates shipments with potential delays onto a new interface – enabling you to quickly identify and address issues that may arise. We are sharing a sneak peek of this new technology with a pilot group of users during the balance of the year and will formally rollout the new tool early next year. The tool will include a new map view to save you time from viewing separate notifications and tracking individual shipments by giving you visibility to any shipment that may not be going according to plan, all in one place.
West Coast Service
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the work being done to restore network fluidity in the Los Angeles area. Union Pacific is using its buffer of resources (employees, locomotives and rail cars) to manage the double-digit growth in international intermodal volumes from the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. We’ve worked closely with customers to temporarily manage the flow of containers, it was effective and fluidity is increasing, but we’ve got a way to go. We continue to have daily communication with the marine terminals to work through issues and get ahead of any potential constraints. We appreciate your patience and cooperation as we work through this situation.
Service Metrics
Our key operating metrics are holding steady.
- Freight Car Velocity – 217 miles per day
- Train Velocity – 19.3 miles per hour
- Terminal Dwell – 21.5 hours
Planning Ahead
It’s unseasonably warm here in Omaha, but we’ve got flurries flying in the mountains, so it’s not too early to start thinking about preparing for winter weather. On Tuesday, November 19, 11 a.m. Central Time we will be hosting a webinar to help customers prepare for winter weather, so mark your calendars and register here.
Thank You
As always, thank you for your business. Union Pacific is committed to our customers and we’ve shown we will invest to provide the safe and reliable service we sold you.
Sincerely,
Kenny Rocker
Executive Vice President, Marketing & Sales