In today's rail industry, visibility into rail shipments and assets is no longer a luxury, it's a necessity. Whether you're tracking containers or railcar movements, understanding the location and health of your assets, historical lane volumes, traffic patterns, and commodity volumes is crucial. This knowledge empowers businesses to make informed decisions on shipment management, fleet utilization, and even investment strategies.
But who exactly can access this critical information? The ability to track rail shipments is tightly controlled, with access determined by your role in the shipment or within the industry. This blog will explore who can track rail shipments, the protocols in place to ensure data security, and how TransmetriQ can help you gain the insights you need.
Who Has Access to Rail Shipment Information?
Access to rail shipment data is governed by Data Access Policies (DAPs) designed to protect sensitive information. Generally, the parties who can obtain this information include:
-
A party to the rail waybill: This includes shippers, consignees, beneficial owners, account of parties, freight payors, and notify parties.
-
A party to the route of the shipment: This involves railroads listed in the waybill route.
-
The owner of the equipment: This refers to the owner of the car marks in Railinc's Umler® system.
These limitations ensure that only those directly involved in the shipment have access to the data, safeguarding it from third parties seeking business intelligence. If you do not fall into one of these categories, you can still access the information with a Letter of Authorization (LOA) from one of the entities involved. LOAs are particularly useful for third-party logistics companies (3PLs) and value-added resellers (VARs) that provide additional logistics services.
Understanding Letters of Authorization (LOAs)
LOAs allow companies not directly involved in a shipment to gain access to rail waybill data. These letters are typically used by 3PLs and VARs to enhance their service offerings. The LOA process is straightforward:
-
Request Permission: Contact one of the shipment parties (the "Grantor") to request access.
-
Approval: The Grantor decides whether to approve the request. If approved, LOAs are valid for up to three years, with an annual revalidation process.
This system ensures that even those outside the immediate shipment circle can obtain the necessary data to provide value-added services while respecting data privacy. For more details on how LOAs function within the TransmetriQ platform, explore our Rail Shipment Tracking page.
Tracking rail shipments is key to ensuring efficient fleet management and staying on top of asset health.
TransmetriQ Waybill Parameters and Leased Railcars
As the custodian of rail waybill data, Railinc, and subsequently TransmetriQ, leverages waybill parameters to facilitate automatic equipment tracing for parties listed on a waybill. This system tracks railcars throughout their journey, generating events and updates until the shipment reaches its final destination.
TransmetriQ offers permanent tracing capabilities for equipment owners, ensuring visibility across all movements. The process can be more complex for leased cars, but TransmetriQ's security measures help maintain visibility.
If those leased cars are moving your shipments, you would be a party on the waybill and tracing them is no issue. But what happens when one of your leased cars is moving a shipment for another company? You likely lose visibility to the car. To ensure you maintain visibility to your cars, TransmetriQ employs party-to-equipment security.
By providing an LOA from the car owner or copies of your lease with the equipment IDs of the cars, TransmetriQ’s tracing application can maintain a permanent list of those cars. This allows you to trace the car whenever and wherever it moves.
If you're managing leased railcars, understanding the role of security is essential. You can find more details on how TransmetriQ manages these agreements on our Railcar Lease Management page.
Security Exceptions: When Standard Protocols Don't Apply
Not all shipment details are consistently populated on a rail waybill, particularly for intermodal shipments. In these cases, TransmetriQ provides specific security exceptions:
- Intermodal Exception: Applies to companies like freight forwarders and dray carriers participating in intermodal shipments.
- Business Practice Exception: Similar to the intermodal exception but covers carload shipments and service providers.
- Port Exception: Designed for ports that are involved in the shipment's embarkation or debarkation.
These exceptions ensure that all necessary parties can access the information they need while maintaining the data's security and integrity.
Monitoring Asset Health
Beyond shipment tracking, asset health monitoring is another critical area where access to information is essential. Railroads use trackside scanners across North America to monitor the health of railcars, identifying potential issues before they lead to costly repairs or derailments.
Full access to this health data is straightforward for equipment owners. With the TransmetriQ Platform, you can track real-time asset health information, including Wheel Impact Load Detector (WILD) reads and Acoustic Bearing Detector (ABD) alerts. These alerts are often the cause of running repairs done to your cars under mandatory conditions (including EHMS AAR A1 and ATSI Mandatory alert levels).
Leased cars, however, may come with restrictions depending on the lease agreement. Net leases typically allow full access to asset health data, while full-service leases may limit this access. Providing the necessary documentation, such as an LOA, can ensure you maintain visibility of your leased assets. Learn more about optimizing railcar maintenance on our Railcar Maintenance and Repair Optimization page.
Ready to Optimize Your Rail Shipment Tracking?
Having visibility into rail shipments and the health of your rail assets is essential for effective business management. While access to this information is tightly controlled, TransmetriQ offers the tools and security protocols necessary to ensure that the right people have the right data at the right time.
Empower your business with the insights to stay ahead of the competition. Whether you're directly involved in a shipment or managing a fleet of leased railcars, understanding who can track rail shipments and how to access this information is key to maintaining a competitive edge in the industry. Don't let critical data slip through the cracks—take control of your rail operations today. Schedule a personalized demo to see how TransmetriQ can transform your business, or contact our team for more information on how we can tailor our solutions to your specific requirements.