These reports are designed to provide an effective means to understand how much use you have gotten out of your railcar assets.
It combines a shipment summary (i.e. the number of shipments for a specified period with the daily average number of railcars and their load / empty / empty at origin status for a given time period.
Average Number of Shipments per Railcar calculation
These two measurements are used together to determine the average number of shipments per railcar over a given time frame for each pool and the overall fleet. For example, say we want to compare our railcar utilization for the month of May 2000 to the same month a year ago to determine if the fleet is being utilized better. Run the Railcar Utilization Summary report for May 1, 1999 to May 31, 1999 and then run the same report for May 1, 2000 to May 31, 2000. Often, the number of railcars in your fleet will be different than a year ago: railcars are added and/or removed.
# shipments May 1999 = 125
Avg. # railcars May 1999 = 99
Avg. # shipments per railcar = 125/99 = 1.26
# of shipments in May 2000 = 140
Average # of railcars in May 2000 = 120
Avg. # of shipments per railcar = 125/99 = 1.17
This example shows a common situation. Even though more shipments were performed in May, 2000 than in May, 1999, the actual utilization of the railcar fleet was less.
Step by step instructions:
1. From the Management Reports tree branch on the Home window, double-click Railcar Utilization Summary or Railcar Utilization, which is the same report except that is shows the detail records in addition to the summary.
2. The Filter Builder will display that will allow you to select some simple filters. For unlimited filtering capabilities, copy this report and edit it in the Custom Report Creator and Editor. Click on the Show an pre-existing filters button to see if there are any saved filters associated with this report.
3. Once the report has displayed on the screen, print it by clicking on the Print command button on the Report Viewer toolbar.