Enhanced operations efficiency is the key to a successful business and the driver behind the Cloud Logistics by E2open and Raven Logistics Alliance

ATLANTA - Railroad Rule 11 is a rail industry regulation governing the accounting procedures around interline shipments, whereby more than one carrier is utilized to meet the shipment requirements of the customer. Due to the complications surrounding the accounting procedures, each party is required to be in compliance.

“Cloud Logistics’ customers were looking for an efficient process around railroad Rule 11 compliance, and turned to us to incorporate this function into our TMS,” said Mark Nix, senior vice president of transportation and founder of Cloud Logistics by E2open. “We quickly identified Raven Logistics, with its exclusive solution designed to create efficiency and compliance around Rule 11, as an ideal partner.”

Rule 11 requires each rail carrier of an interline shipment to invoice the customer for its segment of the trip, putting the responsibility on the customer to allocate resources to manage the multiple invoices, handle payment, and of course, ensure compliance.

While the issues of Rule 11 compliance are complex, there is no question the regulation created efficiencies, resulting in more accurate invoicing and less time wasted. Prior to Rule 11, the originating carrier on an interline shipment was responsible to invoice the shipper and dole out payments to the other carriers, which resulted in a disorganized, redundant system fraught with inaccuracies. What’s more, the originating carrier was aware of the rates negotiated by other carriers, which left the industry uneasy.

The Cloud Logistics/Raven Logistics alliance takes the efficiencies of Rule 11 one step further by offering customers smooth, seamless compliance as well as enhanced visibility. A recent article underscores the importance of utilizing software solutions customized to your needs and industry to help reduce manual processes and redundancies, thereby reducing mistakes, as well as encouraging agile workflow and increasing accountability.

Redundancy—duplicating efforts—not only wastes time and mismanages resources, but multiple people involved in one function makes it prone to errors, inconsistencies and dropped balls , according to a recent report.  An article in Entrepreneur Magazine indicates that repeated steps dilutes the quality of the process, creates confusion for all those involved and distracts them from focusing on longer term goals.

“Our customers need to be able to focus on the task at hand, not get bogged down with details of worrying about compliance. Our new relationship with Raven Logistics frees our customers up to focus on meeting business objectives and generating revenue,” said Mr. Nix.

Productivity experts stress that efficient operations are often the difference between success and failure for any organization or system. Employee time is an organization’s most valuable resource and should be managed wisely to ensure it is optimized, ideally making the organization money and not being bogged down in tedious process details.