From July 8, every Class I railroad must publish two new weekly service metrics, giving shippers a standing, carrier-by-carrier record of on-time delivery and dock-level reliability to use in rate negotiations and service disputes.
What's new: The Surface Transportation Board's final rule (Docket EP 787) took effect June 7 and requires BNSF, Union Pacific, CSX, Norfolk Southern, CPKC, and Canadian National to publish two figures every week at both division and system level, with the first reports due July 8.
Railroads have reported weekly speed, dwell and cars-online data for years, while a more recent service crisis triggered temporary emergency disclosures.
EP 787 makes the two most shipper-relevant pieces permanent and closes those emergency dockets. The STB also launched a beta open-data portal.
What the scorecards measure: The first metric, original estimated time of arrival (OETA), tracks the share of manifest shipments delivered no later than 24 hours after the railroad’s own promised arrival time, effectively measuring performance against its stated commitment.
The second, industry spot and pull (ISP), measures the share of scheduled railcar spots and pulls completed within the planned window, capturing first-mile and last-mile reliability at the shipper’s dock.
Why it matters to shippers: OETA is the same metric written into the STB's reciprocal-switching-for-inadequate-service standard, allowing a shipper to seek a switching remedy when a carrier misses OETA on a lane for 12 consecutive weeks. That turns the weekly filings into more than a transparency exercise and gives shippers an evidentiary record for rate negotiations and service complaints.
“It’s a win for the shippers,” Michael Gorman, a University of Dayton professor and former BNSF director, told Supply Chain Dive, noting the industry “had problems with on-time performance [and] reliability of service.”
The merger backdrop: The same agency is weighing the Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern transcontinental merger, which values Norfolk Southern at an $85 billion enterprise value, whose backers project $3.5 billion a year in shipper savings.
The uniform weekly scorecard arrives as shippers test that claim, giving them a carrier-by-carrier baseline as they press for enforceable service-assurance conditions on any merger approval.
What to watch: The July 8 launch begins a weekly OETA and ISP data series across every Class I railroad. The first carrier to post 12 consecutive weeks of OETA misses on a lane may become the first test of whether shippers actually pursue the switching remedy the data now enables.
