CN – Brampton International Terminal‘Best Practice’ SeminarToronto, February 9, 2006

BACKGROUND

Look back to 2 years ago!

• Chaos, Bottlenecks, Delays

Today:

• Carters embrace NEW appointment system –

• Dwell time has been reduced. Fluidity has been increased!

_________

• We have effectively moved towards a process driven system that works

What is today’s value proposition?

• For the International Freight Forwarder

• For the Railroad

• Are we to deliver a QUALITY product or are we to be price driven?

• CN too was caught in a fixed price environment – limiting growth due to non existent profitability

Today

__________________

Quality and efficiencies can only be achieved through

better planning

At point of receiving

Knowing the constraints at the point of receiving will determine the period of advice required for appointments/reservations

Origin Pre-Alerts

• Planning process must start with origin pre-alert to approximate ETA at BIT and commence file processing

• Frequently monitor vessel ETA – especially for Halifax (30 hrs R/R transit) and Montreal (8 hrs R/R transit)

Carrier Advice of Arrival

Remember short transit times from

Halifax and Montreal:

• Customs Clearance must

commence immediately upon

ship’s arrival

Tracing Processes

• Use Port (not carrier) website to confirm Container grounding at the ports:

• R/R’s do NOT know when Containers will be available at the port facility

• Then commence tracing process through CN

• Trace through CN website repeatedly to verify ‘Gone to Rail’ status and estimated ETA at BIT

• Use CN’s ‘Quick Trace Option’ to verify ‘arrived’ and ‘deramped’ times

Remember:

• ‘Arrive Times’ are estimates

• ‘Deramp Times’ are final and start the clock running

• Base your pick-up on ‘Deramp Advice’

BIT Extraction Activity

• On receipt of initial ETA (Arrive Time) confirm tentative delivery with customer and make p/u reservation with CN (or carter)

• Reconfirm ‘deramp time’ prior to pick-up

Remember:

The pick-up reservation can be changed if it was done initially with ‘Arrive Time’ estimates provided by CN

Customer Education

• Customer education is critical to avoid later disputes on storage and other extra fees

• If the new system is unworkable for your customer – then extra costs must be budgeted

Such budgets can include:

• Options such as movement to MISC at a reduced storage costs

• Usage of external yards

• Other, customer driven alternatives

Conclusion

• Market MUST accept reality that long (and free) storage is not compatible with today’s fluidity requirements to meet ever increasing volumes

• We must understand limitations of facilities available

Thank You

• Coffee Break

• Question and Answers thereafter

Steve Valentine, President Cargo Alliance