CARY, N.C.—December 4, 2024 (James Street Media Services)— Railinc^®'sTransmetriQ brand has launched a new Shop Locator tool, designed to reduce freight car out-of-service time for car users, owners, and lessors. Shop Locator helps fleet managers to quickly find repair shops when cars require service and enables better, more efficient communication with those shops.

Many owners, lessors, and shippers of small-to-medium size fleets often must use time-consuming, informal internet searches, emails, phone calls, or intermediary services to find repair shops when cars unexpectedly need repair. This can be frustrating for fleet managers and ultimately lengthen a car’s out-of-service time.

“Fleet managers must pay attention to capabilities, transportation costs, and labor rates when selecting a repair shop. The TransmetriQ solution helps identify the best options for the repairs and even provides quote comparisons,” says Gregg Phillips, Product Manager, TransmetriQ.

“With more than 1.6 million freight cars in service across North America,” Phillips says, “Shop Locator’s ability to reduce repair turnaround time by three or more days can significantly reduce supply chain costs for rail shippers.”

When manually searching for repair shops, users often make multiple follow-up contacts to confirm and compare capabilities and costs. Plus, they often miss opportunities to schedule opportunistic repairs, reducing trips to shop. With consolidated fleet health information already in TransmetriQ, users can quickly scan fleet alerts and identify opportunistic work, reducing shop trips.

Shop Locator immediately identifies and contacts shops equipped to handle the needed repairs, and tracks and compares estimates within an electronic shopping request. The module’s key features include:

         •identification of shop options based on the car’s current location, serving railroad, and repair needs
         •initiation of a shopping request including railcar health alerts and additional service requests from customers;
         •comparison of shop quotes;
         •an option to provide supporting documents or pictures in the request for a quote;
         •a shop portal for the shop to submit quotes and estimates; and
         •automatic auditing of repair estimates once a car has been inspected at the shop.

The Shop Locator database already includes the North American railcar repair shops needed by current users, and can quickly be updated when new users are added.

“The release of this solution exemplifies our commitment to partner with car owners/lessors, shippers, and railroads to expand freight rail use—the most competitive, safe, and green mode of transportation,” says Mika Majapuro, Vice President, TransmetriQ.

More information about TransmetriQ’s Shop Locator module is available at www.transmetriq.com.

About Railinc
Railinc is the railroad industry’s innovative and reliable resource for rail data, IT, and information services. The company deploys data that helps railroads, rail equipment owners, and other industry participants manage their businesses more effectively and efficiently. Railinc is the largest single source of real-time, accurate interline rail data for the North American railroad system. Located in Cary, N.C., Railinc is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Association of American Railroads. For more information, please visit www.railinc.com.

About TransmetriQ
TransmetriQ is a group of Railinc transportation experts, product managers, UX designers, software developers, data scientists, and critical thinkers developing insights and solutions that help customers build businesses that compete and win. Our teams work to improve our current products and develop the next generation of business-oriented transportation solutions. Visit us at www.transmetriq.com.