RMI, the market leader and largest independent provider of accurate, reliable, comprehensive and secure rail information services to the transportation industry, announces today the 2008 Fast Track Award winners. Now in its third year, the 2008 Fast Track Award program honors 12 RMI customers who exemplify RMI's goal to streamline processes and improve procedures in the rail industry. Award recipients will be recognized in the 2008 Fast Track Award calendar.

The Fast Track award is specifically designed to recognize RMI's RailConnect and ShipperConnect 'power users,' those organizations who maximize the value of RMI's services by implementing procedures that result in more comprehensive automation of manual processes, improved information capture and reporting, greater accounting control, enhanced asset management or more efficient processes in any capacity.

'RMI would like to congratulate all of the Fast Track Award winners who continue to reap the benefits of RMI's technology,' says Jennie Baker, AVP-marketing of RMI. 'In our third year of the Fast Track Awards, RMI is proud that our winners continue to demonstrate a commitment to excellence by building upon the successes that has been established in previous years. We are delighted that RMI is meeting its goal of improving efficiency and profitability of our customers' operations through cutting-edge solutions."

2008 Winners

The following is a summary of the 2008 Fast Track winners:

  • Columbus & Greenville Railway (CAGY): CAGY customers are using eBOL to transmit 90% of all outbound shipment instructions electronically. ShipperConnect and eBOL have saved CAGY almost 300 man-hours annually for data entry.
  • The Port Terminal Railroad Association (PTRA): With the assistance of new tools designed to provide enhanced yard visibility, PTRA has reduced outbound dwell time by 43% and reduced industry dwell by 26%.
  • Marquette Rail (MQT): MQT implemented mCrew for remote crew reporting, greatly enhancing the flow of critical information to its customers and saving substantial administrative costs.
  • New York & Atlantic Railway (NYA): Using ShipperConnect and eBOL, NYA has increased automated forwarded billing to 91% and automated release empty reporting to 44%.
  • Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis (TRRA): Utilizing enhanced reporting and Business Intelligence, TRRA has reduced dwell time at its principal yard by 44% and reduced the three highest destination dwell blocks by 47%.
  • Tazewell & Peoria Railroad (TZPR): Implementing mCrew has reduced manually created wheel reports by 50%, and combining AEI with other automation features in RailConnect, TMS has resulted in 75% automated billing for switching and related charges.
  • Union Railroad (URR): Working with RMI to develop customer interfaces with three of its plants, URR has achieved nearly 100% automation of car movements, load, unload and releases.
  • Tacoma Rail (TMBL): By developing a custom interface between RailConnect TMS and one of their largest customers, Tacoma Rail has virtually eliminated all data entry associated with handling this traffic and reduced the manual effort by the customer by 50%.
  • Georgetown Railroad (GRR): Since implementing RailConnect TMS, Georgetown Railroad's TRAIN II reporting scorecard has improved from 40% to 100% events reported while timeliness improved from 89% to 100%.
  • Texas Pacifico Transportation (TXPF): By accessing RailConnect via the Internet, the TXPF staff in Mexico City is able to communicate in a timely and effective manner with the operations staff in Brownwood, TX, resulting in a 14% reduction in car hire payments.
  • Buffalo & Pittsburgh Railroad (BPRR): Significant use of Automated Blocking Tables in RailConnect TMS has allowed BPRR to capture 88% of constructive placements and 83% of storage moves automatically, while an extensive rollout of ShipperConnect has resulted in captu