union pacific railroad future car accounting process linda newell - gen dir ecommerce, mike...
TRANSCRIPT
Union Pacific RailroadFuture Car Accounting ProcessUnion Pacific RailroadFuture Car Accounting Process
Linda Newell - Gen Dir ECommerce, Mike Carmichael - Sr Mgr Car Acctg, Lori Wies - Mgr Car Acctg
May 8, 2008
2
Car Accounting is not known for moving at breakneck speed
3
Car Accounting is known for setting plenty of rules to follow
In LCSWe Trust
4
Following them to the letter
Well Maybe Not
5
Then looking back and saying “What” went wrong
How doI Fix This?
6
Well, we’ve kind of done that with LCS
Use LCS to Validate Claims
LCS Interchange TimesTake Precedence
Apply TOL’s
Pay Car Hire
Rece
ive Paymen
t
Partially
Based on LCS
Send
out
Cla
ims
Apply LCS
to Operating System
Rec
eive
LCS M
essa
ges
7
Future Car Accounting Process
• UPRR problems with car accounting system
• Development of new system based on LCS liability file from Railinc
• System Implementation – Interim results
• Potential enhancements
8
Union Pacific – Problems with LCS
• Union Pacific’s old system applied LCS messages to internal car cycles
– Messages not applied to correct cycles
– No cycle found
– Received LCS changes only
• LCS messages queued for manual processing
• Caused both over and under payments
• Overpayments were never recovered
• Underpayments resulted in claims worked manually
9
Union Pacific – Problems with Rule 5 TOL messages
• UPRR created Rule 5 TOLs from internal car cycles
• Interchange times on internal car cycles only updated with LCS change messages
• Received a daily average of 51 Train 58 messages that were worked manually (rejected TOLs)
• Resulted in car hire claims
10
Solution: Equipment Liability System (ELS)
• ELS Objectives
– Create accurate payments for foreign equipment
• Payments based on exact LCS liability
• Eliminate all claims from foreign roads
– Accurate claims for UPRR owned equipment
• Increase receivables
• Eliminate inaccurate claims
• Decrease manual effort to resolve disputed claims
11
ELS Phase 1 - January 2007
• Collaborated with Railinc to create an equipment liability file based on LCS messages
– Received online events and hours for foreign and TTX equipment
– Received online and offline events for UPRR owned equipment
• Created database to house equipment liability file
12
ELS Phase 1 – Interim Process
• Compared equipment liability file with internal event and payment data to identify differences
– Analyzed differences during system development
– Identified specific data issues/requirements
– Identified Internal / external LCS issues
– Presented LCS issues to the LCS TAG
• Adjusted car cycles to mimic Railinc file for both foreign and UPRR owned equipment
– 45% reduction in foreign claims received
– Reduced system claims created by 55% (claims that were not supported by LCS)
13
ELS Phase 1.1 - September 2007Rule 5 TOL messages• UPRR created daily switch bill file to send to Railinc
• Railinc created and sent out Rule 5 TOL messages based on LCS validated interchange times
• Results
– Significant reduction in Train 58 rejection messages
– Accurate Rule 5 TOLs
– Eliminate TOL claims
14
ELS Phase 2 - February 2008 (December account month)• Created foreign payment based on Railinc liability
file
– Tied miles from cycles in old system to liability units
– Created exchange file based on Railinc liability and mile file
– Defined and implemented web screens to process claims and adjustments
• Expected results
– Reduced foreign claims received
– Reduction of 3 full-time equivalents
15
ELS Phase 3 – April 2008 (December account month)• Generated system claims from Railinc liability file
– Email claims to recipients
– Enhanced claim accuracy
– Added additional detail to user records
– Defined and implemented web screens to view offline liability and make adjustments on system claims
– Reduced manual work for declined claims
16
ELS – Potential Enhancements
• Allow foreign railroads to access ELS to retrieve copies of claims
• Ability for foreign roads to dispute/decline claims online
• Electronic exchange of claim information for systematic match of data
17
Questions?