To import railcar sighting records (commonly referred to as CLM) from Steelroads, follow these step by step instructions (it is assumed that you already have entered your railcar fleet or shipping instructions into RMS before performing this function; see Add/Update Railcars):
1.
Configure Internet Access. Open Internet Explorer; click on the Tools | Internet Options… menu; click on the Connections tab; under Dial-up settings make the following changes:
a. If you access the Internet through your LAN, select "Never dial a connection"
b. If you access the Internet through your computer's modem, select "Always dial my default connection"
2. From Data Management click the command button labeled Import Properties.
3. Click on the Sighting Data tab.
4. Check Steelroads Demand Trace; click OK.
5. Click the command button labeled Reference Values.
6. Select "Steelroads Login" from the Reference QuickFind and enter your login (case sensitive) in the Value text box; click Save.
7. Select "Steelroads Password" from the Reference QuickFind and enter your password (case sensitive) in the Value text box; click Save.
8. If you own, lease or have permanently assigned railroad pool railcars that you wish to trace all events for, it is recommended that you maintain a saved Trace List in Steelroads, otherwise go to step 9. Steelroads's New Events response option (an option that enables you to receive all of the events on all railcars in the list since the last time a trace was performed – traces must be performed within 4 days of each other to avoid gaps in the railcar movement history) requires a saved Trace List in order to operate properly. It is recommended that you have a Trace List to be used only by RMS; this is because if you run the Trace List from within a browser, the last trace date would be reset and the next time RMS would run that Trace List, it would not receive the events that printed out in the prior browser-based trace. Unfortunately, to take advantage of this option, you must maintain two lists of permanent railcars: one in RMS and one in the Steelroads Trace List. However, the benefit of having a complete movement history for each railcar is worth the extra work.
Note that Steelroads allows a maximum of 1,000 railcars per Demand Trace List. If you wish to trace more than 1,000 railcars, create multiple lists.
Select "Steelroads Demand Trace List(s)" from the Reference QuickFind and enter the name of a list of railcars (case sensitive) that you have saved in Steelroads in the Value text box; click Save. If you have multiple lists, enter these list names separated by a semi-colon.
Temporary railcars (those that are only being used and tracked for a loaded shipment and are not controlled by your company) will be traced by their last event each time the RMS Steelroads Demand Trace is performed. Thus it is important to run the Steelroads Demand Trace through RMS at least daily. This can be scheduled for evenings and weekends, see Scheduling Steelroads CLM Imports.
9. Click on the Import Data Only or the Import Data and Create Cycles (this will take much longer – it is recommended that Cycles be run overnight as part of a scheduled Import Data and Create Cycles) command button. RMS will automatically import the new sightings from the Steelroads Web Server.
Note: The larger your database gets, the longer this process will take. If the process is taking too long, you may want to consider archiving or deleting data from the current database. See Archiving and deleting data from the database. It is recommended that you regularly backup the database. See Backing up and Restoring the database. Ideally, a backup should be done at the end of each day. Then, if any problems are encountered the following day, the prior day database can be restored.