CUSTOMER SERVICE
Each customer is an individual with unique requirements. Arkansas Missouri Railroad has approximately 150 customers. Understanding how they work, what they produce, the direction of their switches, their priority commodities, and how rail movement affects their production insures quality customer service.
We have established a weekly car order program for eight sand customers, six refrigeration customers and two reload facilities. All the customers project what they will need for the week (empty boxes, flats, reefers, and hoppers, loads of sand) and when they would like to have the cars. Continual communication with Arkansas Missouri Railroad allows our customers to increase their business and project the cars they will need for the week.
This reduces problems with the movement of rail cars and allows the customer to anticipate the direction rail movement will take. This, in turn, also allows our customers to have more information about their shipments and they are able to pass this news on to their customers.
The crews have a customer sheet attached to the switch list each day. This gives the crews a list of all the customers who need a switch on one sheet and eliminates the crews missing vital information. The switch list is also marked. The customer sheet is used for requests, spotting and pulling instruction, or if the movement is hot (first move of the day). The sheet also allows the crews to respond if there are conditions or problems that interferred with car handling.
Faster and better service are the primary goals for the Arkansas Missouri Railroad. Any time a car is released as an empty or a load, our customers know to fax a release into the Agency. All loads must have the billing to be released from the customer. This reduces problems with demurrage.
The average time from an empty or loaded car to sit at the customer is less than twenty-four hours on the Arkansas Missouri Railroad line. Furthermore, the average time for a car to on line before it goes to a customer is less than twenty-four hours. Arkansas Missouri Railroad has minimal track space for storage with the capacity to hold 150 cars in Springdale and 150 cars in Fort Smith. The lack of track space makes it necessary to move cars off line as soon as possible, which, in turn, make for lower car hire costs.
Approximately 3,000 loads move through this line each month. Arkansas Missouri Railroad's policy has always been open door. The Arkansas Missouri Railroad's Agency department is open continuously from 10:00pm, Sunday, to 11:00pm, Friday. The Agency is also open Saturday from 7:00am to 12:00pm. The customer can call or come by with any questions, inquires, or problems. We encourage all the customers to come and learn more about the railroad. Each year we have a passenger train excursion from Springdale to Van Buren, Arkansas, for our customers and their families. In the summer, we have a Bar-B-Que for the customers and employees so extra communication can take place. In the spring, we have a box at the University of Arkansas's Baum Stadium to watch the Razorback baseball game with our customers.
Finally, we have also been able to improve many of our services by sending out opinion polls every three months to our customers so that they can respond to our service, quality and communication techniques. The Arkansas Missouri Railroad's monthly company newsletter also stresses customer service.
SIGNAL DEPARTMENT
MARKETING
MAINTENANCE OF WAY
LOCOMOTIVES
SAFETY & SECURITY
OPERATION LIFESAVER
COMMUNITY RELATIONS
FREIGHT CAR FLEET
AIR BRAKE SHOP
CUSTOMER SERVICE
TRAINING
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