BNSF CEO’s talk illustrates value of data in improving service

SCHAUMBURG, Ill. — The power of data, or more accurately, of well-used data, may not have explicitly been the topic of BNSF Railway CEO Katie Farmer’s presentation at the Midwest Association of Rail Shippers Winter Meeting. But it was a recurring theme of several subjects she touched on as part of her keynote address Wednesday on the conference’s first day.

Data played a part in Farmer’s look ahead to BNSF’s Barstow International Gateway intermodal and logistics project; in discussing the railroad’s program of automated track inspection; and in efforts to improve information on arrival times for shippers.

“I’m really excited about what we’re doing in Barstow,” Farmer said. “And not just because of the capacity. … What I’m really excited about is the conversations we’re having with our customers, ocean carriers, drayage companies, the largest importers in the country. … What we’re talking about is not only capacity, but how we’re going to be interchanging data with each other.

“To give you an example, if I’m a large importer and I have a box on a vessel, wouldn’t it be cool if while we have a box on the vessel, we have all the information coming to us and we can make decisions, the customer can make the decision while that box is on the vessel about, do I want to go IPI [inland point intermodal]? Do I want to stay local? Do I want to transload it? We have that information, we [can] plan to work in our intermodal hub around that.

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