b'24American Journal of Transportation ajot.com(PAYOFFcontinued fromwith Creel in Progressive Rail- Now,thoughthereare(PARTNERScontinued froming and bending.page 21) roading magazine. shareholderandregulatorypage 21) Thehockey-stickgrowth from Hunter. But Keith took thatItsaprocessandpeopleapprovals still ahead, hes all butnewproduct,saidEricDoug- of e-Commerce coupled with the opportunity and ran with it. business. And if youre going toassured to acquire Kansas Citylas,ExecutiveVicePresidentgrowingimportanceofsupply Creelhasgainedrespectoptimizetheoutcome,youveSouthern. The Surface Transpor- of TechnologyandEngineeringchain resilience continue to be from his peers as CP has postedgottounderstandtheprocesstation Board already has praisedatGEODISinAmericas.Bya massive tailwind for scalable thesectorshighestaverageand youve got to know how totheCanadianPacific-Kansasimplementing the Exotec Skypodrobotics solutions like Exotec, profitmarginsoverthelastlead and inspire people, CreelCitySoutherntie-upasatrueSystem into our GEODIS eLo- saidRomainMoulin,CEO five years. While Union Pacificsaid in an interview. I learnedend-to-endmergerandhasgistics site, we can enable an evenofExotec.Wearedelighted Corp.ChiefExecutiveOfficerall that from Hunter. ruled that the deal will be judgedfastershippingexperiencefortojoinforceswithAHSand LanceFritzdeclinedtocom- under older, less stringent rules. ourcustomersase-CommerceGEODIStobetterservethe ment on CPs pending deal, heA s oFTerT ouch Creelhaspredictedhiscontinues to drive demand. rapidlyevolvingneedsofthe said Creel has held his own inCreel became CEO of Cana- acquisitionwillbethelastbigExotec has revolutionized theNorth American market.the industry. dian Pacific after Harrison abruptlymergerintheindustry. AfteritfulfillmentindustryinEuropeAHS has been working with We have big jobs. Wereleftin2017toteamupwithiscompleted,therewillbesixand Japan and continues to growGEODIS for several years and stewardsofverybiginstitu- anotheractivistinvestortomajor railroads balanced in geo- its presence in the U.S. markethas formed a strategic partner-tions. Theres a lot of demandstopple the management of CSX.graphic pairs across North Amer- withcustomerslikeGapInc.,ship to provide ground-breaking put on us by all of our stake- CreelbeganputtingasoftericaCSX and Norfolk SouthernAriat International and Comotosolutions to assist the company holders, said Fritz, who imple- touchtoHarrisonstechniquesintheeasternU.S.,BNSFandHoldingsrecentlyadopting thewithbest-in-classofferings, mentedHarrisonstechniquesthat kept the operating efficien- UnionPacificinthewesternSkypodsystem.TheExotecsaid Chuck Frank, President of at his railroad, in an interview.ciesbutmendedfenceswithU.S., and now two railroads thatSkypod uses laser scanner navi- AHS. The AHS team is com-Keith is doing a wonderful jobcustomers, Hatch said. span Canada and reach down togationandrobustsoftwaretomittedtobeingonthecutting managinghisbusinessandIOnCreelswatch,Cana- the U.S. Gulf Coast. increasewarehousethroughputedge of technology and expand-wish him luck. dianPacifichasbecometheThe deal solidifies the U.S.by up to five times with a two- ing its market share by investing most efficient railroad in Northrail network, enhances the U.S.minuteresponsetimeforallin the training, deployment and r ighT -h AnDM An America as measured by operat- railnetworkandcements,ISKUs. The system is designed topost go-live support of trending Creel started his railroadinging ratio. believe, the U.S. rail network forimprove working conditions andtechnologies. Exotec is a great career at BNSF Railway Co. inCreel combines the wholeany need for future consolidationfostermoresustainableware- strategicpartnerofAHS,and 1992 as a rail yard ramp man- skill set in ways that Ive seenin my lifetime, Creel said in ahouse productivity by reducingwe are excited about yet another agerinBirmingham, Alabama,rarely, Hatch said. Hes clearlySept. 1 conference call with ana- highlyrepetitive,physicallysuccessfulinstallationofan his home state. He took the jobthe perceived superstar. lysts. I hope thats a long time. intensive tasks like walking, lift- Exotec solution. aftergraduatingfromJackson-ville State University and a stint inthemilitarythatincluded beingdeployedasacommis-sioned U.S. Army officer duringWE KNOWthe Persian Gulf War.In 1996, he joined the Illi-nois Central Railroad while Har-rison was chief executive officer. CanadianNationalpurchased thesharesoftheU.S.railroad in 1998 and made Harrison itsPEOPLEchief operating officer and later CEO. Alongtheway,hegave Creelmoreambitiousjobs. Harrison retired from Canadian Nationalin2009and,thefol-lowing year, Creel became chief operating officer.Creel got a call again from Harrisonwhentheelderrail-roader teamed up with an activ-istshareholderin2012ona hostilemanagementtakeover at Canadian Pacific, the worst-performingrailroadinNorth Americaatthetime.Creel thenbecameCPschiefoper-ating officer and again helped implementHarrisonstight-schedulestrategy.Astheduo had done at previous railroads, they improved operations while sometimes upsetting customers with abrupt changes.From Harrison, Creel learned how to nudge customers to more rigidschedulesandtospread volumemoreevenlythrough theweek.Thatallowedthem tobuildtrainsinblocksthat requiredlesscomplexswitch-ing. The result is that railroads can reduce the number of loco-motives, rail yards and workers while moving the same amount of freight.Harrison had an affinity forMexicomadeeasy.Creels hard-charging, problem-solvingpersonalityandthey shared roots growing up in the Southfromhumbleorigins, Cory said. Creel gained a repu-tation of motivating workers by treating them with respect while being demanding, Cory said.Inoneinstance,Creelgot a 2 a.m. call on Saturday from an assistant superintendent who couldntfindhotelroomsfor crews that needed to rest to run trains the next day. Creel went toahotelandconvincedthe managertoallowhimandhis1000 Foust Rd., Brownsville, TX 78521(956) 831-45921-800-378-5395assistant to clean rooms to makeportofbrownsville.comthem available for his workers, accordingtoa2014interview'