2019 AAR Damage Prevention & Freight Claim Conference

Industry Updates Over the Past Year

As in previous years, Complete Packaging Systems was delighted to attend the Annual AAR Damage Prevention and Freight Claim Conference held last month. This year’s 127th Annual AAR DP & FC Conference was held in Omaha, Nebraska from July 8th-11th 2019. The three-day conference covered a variety of industry updates, trends and developments that occurred over the past year.

The conference began with an overview of the Paper, Automotive and Food & Beverage Industry. The overviews included manufacturing outputs, sales and consumer trends. Union Pacific’s Mexico Franchise and Union Pacific’s Cold Connect operations were also discussed.

The bulk of this year’s conference focused on three major “breakout” rail shipments in the industry: Paper, Open-Top and Automotive. The Paper Breakout portion of the conference provided a 101 session for Roll Paper Load Plan Creations covering load plan software, shipment trials and obtaining AAR Approvals. The Open-top Breakout portion of the conference covered topics such as pipe shipments, required railcar clearance updates, the development of new securement products in open-top shipments, military vehicle shipments and how drones have become useful for rail safety/monitoring. Finally, the Automotive breakout session of the conference discussed updates to quality and training sessions, vehicle inspections and how the changes in modern car designs is changing the way cars need to be shipped.

The conference ended with an overview of railcar fleet trends, rail industry updates, factors affecting and creating changes in our industry, the effects of spring deflection on center of gravity height, intermodal distribution and a preview of changes for 2020.

The amount of industry updates and knowledge that Complete Packaging Systems was able to acquire at this years AAR DP & FC Conference was outstanding. Every year there are new technology and safety developments that help improve the rail industry. A full breakdown of this year’s AAR DP & FC Conference and some of the presentations can be found at the AAR’s webpage. For any questions regarding cargo securement and your load plan, contact one of our knowledgeable technical sales and service representatives by calling 866-858-8800.