Training & Consulting

Once you've learned the fundamentals of who the railroads are and how they operate, it's time to learn how a loaded rail car moves. Carloads, whether they are hoppers, tanks, boxes, gondolas, or intermodal flat cars, are the single most important driver of railroad business. If you're responsible for managing shipments, it's important to understand how the carload shipment cycle happens and what each event means for you.

The Loaded Railcar Shipment Cycle is an introduction to how a loaded freight car moves through the shipment cycle, from the customer order through delivery. With knowledge of the meaning of cycle events and Railinc’s role at each, you’ll be able to identify key shipment status indicators faster.  

Topic areas covered include:

• An overview of operations
• Starting the cycle
• Moving the car
• Out on the mainline
• Delivery to the customer

Carload shipments move commodities that are essential to everyday life in North America, but what about those essentials that don’t move by carload? For example, you wouldn’t ship clothes or electronics in a boxcar. While carload and intermodal can ship some of the same things, intermodal is a separate business unit with a distinct vocabulary and event cycle. With Class I’s now shipping more intermodal than carload, intermodal is critical for the North American economy, and knowledge of the distinct event cycle is crucial for properly managing your shipments.

Introduction to Intermodal is an overview of how railroads operate intermodal, the language of intermodal and how an intermodal container or trailer moves on the railroads.

Topic areas covered include:

•  An overview of the intermodal industry
• The different types of intermodal equipment
• Basic intermodal terms
• The railroads and intermodal
• Staring the intermodal movement cycle
• Out on the mainline
• Arriving at the destination

Do you know what a train ID includes? What it means? How to read it? If not, this course is for you. Decoding Railroad Train IDs is a dive into the mystery of what Train IDs are and how to read them.

Decoding Railroad Train IDs is an overview of Train ID structure, how they are used and more. Whether you are just getting into railroading or are utilizing CLMs for supply chain visibility, you need to understand Train IDs.

Topic areas covered include:

• What are Train IDs?
• Train ID structure
• How Train ID's are used for the rail industry and visibility
• A how-to guide on decoding Train IDs

If you're struggling with something that doesn't fall into a standard course offering, let us know. We'll leverage our experts in and create a customized training course that is tailored to your specific needs.

Customized Training Courses are instructor-led and interactive, leveraging Railinc's cross-functional expertise.

Topic areas may include but are not limited to:

• Interpreting Industry Reference File data
• Custom reports that may benefit your company
• Umler® data and which nonconfidential fields may best fit your needs