CP Rail is launching a new scorecard which it says will review the company’s performance for the previous week.
The scorecard will also include—when necessary—detailed information on internal or external factors affecting grain movement.
Marty Cej, the assistant vice president of public affairs says if CP Rail assets aren’t turning the way they should, then the company will take some lumps.
But he says there are also situations where an elevator has to close because it’s snowed in, where a port has to close because of terrible weather on the west coast.
He says those are components that every stakeholder on the supply chain and everybody involved in this industry should be aware to better understand why things might have slowed down.
By the same token, Cej says if the system is working well, all of the stakeholders will be able to see just how efficient things are and perhaps learn some lessons that can be applied in future grain seasons.
Railway performance has been tracked by the Ag Transport Coalition following the massive grain backlogs during the winter of 2013-14.
The Ag Transport Coalition memberships includes grain company and several producer based commodity organizations.
The president of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan supports the move. However, Norm Hall is disappointed that it took a Canada Transportation Act review to prompt the decision.
“Now, it will be really, really interesting to see how their scorecard scores them compared to what the Ag Transport Coalition reports are scoring them at and see if they are close. Of course, when one is scoring themselves, it’s as we say in the card playing game ‘it’s a poor scorekeeper that can’t win the game.’ So, we’ll just have to see how they score themselves.”
Source : CKRM