Definitions

AAR - Association of American Railroads

Car Accounting - The process of reviewing the car hire on a railroad or by a car owner by a department or person.  This can be for cars on their property or reviewing the revenues for their equipment on other railroads.

Car Hire - The rent paid to a rail car owner in time (hours or days) and/or miles for having the car on their railroad.  This is a net of payable and reclaims.

Car Hire Accounting Rate Master (CHARM) - The official source of car hire rates for all equipment registered in UMLER.  Updated monthly by Railinc, the rates contained on these customized files are confidential to each owner and user.

Car Hire Receivables - Car Hire amounts received by a car owner (railroad or company) for the use of their equipment on another railroad.

Car Hire Reclaims - Special agreements or car hire rules that allow car hire to be charged to another railroad or car owner.

CHDX - Car Hire Data Exchange process used by the industry as an electronic exchange of car hire data.

Class I - Railroads with annual carrier operating revenues of $250 million or more. This group includes the nation's major railroads.

Class II - Railroads with annual carrier operating revenues of less than $250 million but in excess of $20 million. This group is made up of “regional railroads.”

Class III / Shortline - Railroads with annual carrier operating revenues of $20 million or less. The typical Class III is a “short line” railroad with feeds traffic to or delivers traffic from a Class I or Class II railroad.

Demurrage - Charges railroads invoice to customers as an incentive to cycle the cars at their facility faster. These are often with certain amounts of free time or credits which offset the total invoice.

FRA - Federal Railroad Administration

Intermodal Car - A rail car designed specifically for handling piggyback trailers or containers, or both.

LCS - Liability Continuity System.  A system established to correct interchange reporting and missing interchanges for car accounting purposes. 

ORER - Official Railway Equipment Register. Published by Commonwealth Business Media this is a listing of all cars including ownership, contact, car type, dimensions, and capacity information.

Railinc - A wholly owned subsidiary of the AAR. Maintains extensive industry databases, applications, and services that are embedded in industry-critical operations and financial systems.

STCC - Standard Transportation Commodity Code. This is a 7 digit number that is assigned to each commodity. A different and additional 7 digit number is assigned to hazardous commodities.  This is shown on all bills of lading and can be cross referenced both alphabetically and numerically.

Uniform Machine Language Equipment Register (UMLER) - UMLER is a database of information about railroad and intermodal equipment managed through Railinc. Within UMLER you can obtain car specifications such as length, capacity, weight, owner etc.

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