We had a fairly interesting discussion on another thread about train crews. That got me to thinking about how this works today. The earlier discussion was based on new regulations for HOS. I dont quite understand all of the issues with those regs and hopefully this thread will help.
Can someone describe how the entire crew utilization system works on their division and the inefficiencies in that system? What prompted this, other than the HOS discussion was an overheard conversation between CN dispatcher and a crew in which the dispatcher asked about the actual running time being less than the scheduled time by over an hour. The crew immediately replied that they had to wait for the train at Battle Creek for over an hour after they were on duty.
I realize things happen to trains that cause them to be delayed, but how accurate are the called times vs actual “on the train” (for lack of better term) times?
Are these planning and calling functions centralized? or locally controlled? What are the communication proceedures from operations to planners to crews?
I recall one night back in the late 90’s when I spent the night at a Super 8 in Fort Madison, Iowa, which was the crew hotel for BNSF. Struck up a conversation with a crewman in the lobby and he showed me the computer system at the time which showed every train on the system. He could pretty much “count” the trains and determine which train he would return on and about what time. Pretty neat stuff and that was nearly 10 years ago.
Has it gotten better or worse for crews over the years?
Systems vary, all I can do is explain how it works in my terminal…
Our crew calling is controlled locally, by me (or current supervisor on duty). At the beginning of the shift, I check the trains enroute and scheduled to depart and the crews available. When everything works, they match. If they don’t, I call the chief dispatcher to discuss either holding trains or deadheading a crew up to turn back on a train.
We use have a computer screen for train calling. The screen lists all the trains that receive crews at my terminal. I simply enter the train’s call time in the screen. The request is then sent to crew management, who calls the crew.
We need at least 2 hrs 15 mins to get a crew on duty.
For our orginating trains this is easy. They all have fixed call times, and I enter the call time ahead of that window. I normally enter all the orginating call times at the beginning of my shift, so I don’t forget.
For through trains, the dispatcher will call me when the train is 2 1/2 to 2 3/4 hours away. Under normal running conditions, this is a fixed location. I keep track of the train locations, and if a train passes this point without a call, I’ll give the DS a call and see what’s up.
When everything works right…the ODTOD (On duty to departure) is less then 30 minutes.
I am a new conductor and the only thing I find that is inefficient amount of time it takes to get a taxi to us once we are dead or arrive at our location for example last night we died about 10 miles from our home terminal and by car its only about 15 to 20 minutes away but yet it still took them almost four hours to pick us up I probably could have walked back to the terminal in that amount of time the worse part about that was I was only two houses away from my folks house and could have stayed there till I got a ride but I wasn’t about to risk losing my job over it though
Guessing when you are going to go to work is still a crap shoot. The more trains on a division the more chaos that entails. The railroad only needs to give you 90 minutes, generally, and will try to get you to take less, notice of when you are going to work. Unexpected deadheads and dog catches mean you suddenly move from 4 times out, looks like 10:00 am tomorrow to the phone suddenly ringing as you are watching the night time news and an the voice informing you that you are on duty for 11;45 pm on the all night local. So the crew office has an exhausted extra board and the first crew has both members layed off? Well, let’s do a paper deadhead, no one leaves the terminal but the “empty” crew does on paper and so your turn is suddenly first out and not second out like you see on the computer. If the crew ahead is short one person you might get shoved up a turn or two or three to fill that home. What you are not rested? Sorry, you are supposed to get your rest when you tie up. Once you answer the phone you have to report for duty or face charges of insubordination.
The best solution I see is a mandatory 8-10 call instead of 90-120 minutes. At least then you would know when to go to bed to get your rest. Instead of using all the new computer technology to make it better for the crews the railroads have used it to eliminate crew caller positions. Try to get ahold or a living person in the centralized crew offices on a class 1 railroad who can decipher what is happening or who knows where to find you if the whole line up turns over unexpectedly. If not for cell phones many employees would have been fired multiple times by now.
With the BNSF the trains on the computer are still the same, if not better. Although with working for a shortline your call time veries from 90 minutes to 3 or even 4 hours. I worked for the DGNO for a short time and they would give us a 3 hour call due to the office being so far from where most of us lived. With the TPW in Illinois we would get a 2 hour call. For short lines you basically just have to call and find out what it looks like.
As a Trainmen Trainee I have heard that one of the biggest problems that seems to happen pretty frequently is that a person with seniority is able to continually roll someone for a day off and still get paid. The conductor is able to call a few friends and hookup someone so that the guy behind him can double over to get double pay.
Smells like fraud / waste / and abuse. But I can’t tell anyone that. I would be blacklisted in a heartbeat. From what I have seen on the “Guaranteed EXTRA BOARD” is that it is turning pretty fast and has 4 available slots for road positions.
We are about to vote on a consolidated conductor/brakemans board. It seems that this is probably the best solution to solve attendence and rest issues.
you need to vote no on the consolidation of the boards . that is if you want a job. the railroads want just one board and call in order you might be a qualified engineer but never work as a engineer due to senority , the other thing is if you dont have lots of senority you can get on the brakemans board before you vote on vacations and get most weeks you want then go back to the conductors job after vacations are assinged, vacations are assinged by senority order of job you hold at time the vacations assinged. after that go back to conductor job if you wish , most generally as a brakeman you can get christmas vacation and other major holidays off while a 25 year man wont. what ever you do dont play into the carriers hand.
At least on my property, tricks like this are largely a thing of the past.
Once you make a senority more you have to stay on that job for 14 days. Also, you are not allowed to make lateral moves with the road pool - ie unless you are displaced, you can’t move from one turn to another. In addition, any jobs open for more the 48 hours, are suppose to have the youngest man on the extra list covering that job forced assigned to it.
That’s not to say that the hijinks still don’t happen. It’s still a fairly common accorance for someone to bump onto a job for the off days, and then bump back to his orginal job when the 14 days are up. Also, guys will ask someone to bump him to get a day off, or because he wants to make a bump, but doesn’t have his 14 days in yet.
Doubling over is a frowned upon practice, and we try to avoid it. If it becomes necessary, we ask the extra list in standing order (the order they were called at the beginning of the shift). Then we ask the regular assigned men in senority order (high to low).
Empty crew is a pool turn where the regularly assigned men are not avalable. Under normal circumstances the vacant slots are filled off the extra list. When the extra list is exhausted, the crew caller will advance the next avalable pool turn for the call.
If one has time in which to do it, you can return to your home terminal. IF you get in to your distant terminal in less than six hours, and can get back (with up to two hours “rest”) in six hours or less. Then you can do that. The other way is to “double back” from a mid point that is less than six hours out from your home terminal, and then return from there in less than 12 hours total running time. This happens a lot if one can catch a unit coal train that runs to a power plant and return with the empties to your home terminal, before your time runs out. Those runs are populated by guys with long whiskers. (high seniority)
For Train and Engine service employees there are 2 forms of ‘doubling’. Yard and Road. In yard service it is sometime necessary to ‘double’ people from one trick to another; the upside of this double for the T&E employee is that they get a full day’s pay for the 4 hours they are permitted to work in their 2nd job of the day due to the 12 hour requirements of the Hours of Service Law.
In Road service, Doubling is the practice of turning back from one’s away from home terminal, either by stepping off one train and then immediately getting on the train back to one’s Home Terminal or by getting off your train a the away from home terminal, taking 4 or more hours rest as required by the Hours of Service Law and then being called for a train back home. The application of the Hours of Service law in this kind of service is that the time from one’s initial on duty time at Home terminal to being relieved at the away from Home terminal counts agains the HOS. ie. If the trip was accomplished in 5 hour 30 minutes that time counts against the 12 hours of the HOS, and therefore leaves that crew 6 hours 30 minutes in which to complete the trip back to home terminal. The HOS Law permits crews to be given a respite of 4 or more hours from their initial relieving time. If called back to duty after being off 4 hours but less than 8 hours the amount of prior time worked counts toward the total of 12 hours on duty.
PBenham - the 2 hour respite, expired with the 16 hour HOS Law back in the early 70’s.