When done incorrectly, freight car repair billing can create days of extra labor managing exceptions, rebuttal billing and industry filing. IAIS recognized that their repair billing process was a monthly drain on time and resources.

Monthly Exceptions

Iowa Interstate’s previous supplier provided a mature system with extra features but failed to update AAR rules regularly to reflect industry changes. Inevitable human errors combined with outdated information caused incorrect billing and exceptions to rise.

Time-Consuming Process

IAIS’ current director of operating systems and previous chief mechanical officer, Greg Wilson, estimated that the IAIS billing team spent several hours over multiple days managing exceptions and rebuttal billing. A system that allowed double-billing and required manual lease management worsened the lengthy billing process.

IAIS knew there had to be a more efficient process. Railinc’s CarLogix team visited IAIS in Iowa to understand their shop operations and determine how CarLogix could help. Frustration with their previous supplier’s lack of support and lack of timely updates drove IAIS to trial CarLogix versus their current solution in a head-to-head 60-day test. CarLogix proved:

• Fewer exceptions
• Increased billable repairs
• Less time spent billing

Wilson explained that since implementing CarLogix, nearly all exceptions are caught before they are billed. “The user interface is a lot cleaner and simpler for our users. Being able to use a mobile device that isn’t clunky is really nice,” said Wilson. Lease integration also saves IAIS time by automatically identifying who gets billed for which repairs. “Our car repair billing people can’t be expected to know all of our leases, and the system takes care of that automatically,” explained Wilson. “What used to take three or four days on and off getting the flat file ready and back-and-forth is literally just an email from Railinc that invoices are ready, Now it’s a 20-minute process,”explained Wilson. “Billing has become a non-issue at our railroad.” “Any time someone from Railinc calls, our company is ready to listen about what they have to offer and how they can help us,” said Wilson.