As railroads continue to manage through the transition in the energy markets and global macroeconomic headwinds, technological improvements and employee ingenuity are positioning us well to serve the new consumer economy over the long term.
Advanced technologies are critical to our ability to capitalize on new growth opportunities in key markets, and we’re accelerating progress in safety, service, and efficiency through automation, mobility, and new forms of communication. The pace of technology advancements is growing exponentially, and achieving industry objectives requires the swift delivery of new solutions to chronic challenges. That requires an environment of strong collaboration and a sense of urgency to take calculated risks to achieve big wins. And we’re already making progress: Locomotives can alert mechanical teams before experiencing engine failure; cameras can pinpoint potential defects on railcars or mismatched RFID tags on intermodal containers; and employees can manage their daily tasks and entire career paths through the ease of their smartphones. In all cases, the goal is to help railroad employees work safer, complete tasks more efficiently, and have more time to devote to ideas and innovation.
Throughout its history, the rail industry has embraced technological advancement as a means to drive our collective business forward and remain relevant in an ever-changing economy. All of these advances are predicated on a proper and equitable regulatory balance that encourages innovation and investment, rather than forced, prescriptive and backward-looking mandates that stifle improvement and mire us in the business of yesterday. With proper regulatory balance, we can continue to make great strides in becoming ever-safer, ever-more reliable and ever-more relevant to global commerce.