Editor’s note: Key to Canada’s economic recovery is the continued reliability of Canadian National Railway, the nation’s leading railroad. Anita Ernesaks, assistant vice president of eBusiness at CN in Montreal, responded to this issue and other questions posed by World Trade Magazine in a recent interview.

World Trade Magazine: Please describe what specific challenges exist for CN in the movement of forestry products.

Anita Ernesaks: CN is the largest carrier of forestry products in Canada and we’re an integral partner with our customers throughout the industry. One of our major challenges is keeping our customers current on their inventory pipeline. For example with paper, it’s imperative for our customers to keep on top of their inventory for rolls of paper. We’re currently working on a new eBusiness initiative with IntelliTrans to offer enhanced shipment tracking and total management for the paper industry. We also offer Forest Products Distribution Centers which are a series of strategically positioned transfer, warehousing and reload facilities that provide a number of value added services to shippers and receivers.

WT: CN has considerable experience in the transport of chemicals as well. Kindly tell our readers where the “pain points” are in this kind of operation.

AE: Our chief concern is safety when transporting chemicals. CN was the first Class 1 carrier in North America to join the Responsible Care program. Responsible Care is a global movement committed to continuous improvement of all aspects of the chemical industry’s environmental, health and safety performance. Our continuing commitment to the Responsible Care program demonstrates our leadership in safe railroading for chemicals. Safety is a core value at CN and we have ranked consistently among the safest railroads in North America.

WT: CN has been described as being the “nice house in a bad neighborhood.” Are other rail carriers following your example in moving these kinds of commodities?

AE: One reason why we stand apart from the crowd is CN’s industry-leading railway service plan. The plan permits CN to make specific transit time commitments for individual shipments, measured in hours, not days. Today our on-time delivery performance exceeds 90 percent. No other carrier is doing this.

WT: eBusiness was created to ease communication between shipper and carrier. Describe the initiatives CN has taken to achieve this goal.

AE: The goal of our eBusiness Solutions is to make it easier for customers to do business with CN. We’ve taken a phased approach to this initiative, focusing on simplifying all customer transactions from pricing to payment. We’ve introduced several new Internet products to make rail transactions easier to do. Shippers can now use our site at www.cn.ca to calculate the transit time from any origin to any destination on the CN network, order equipment up to six months in advance, create and transmit bills of lading, receive real-time shipment location information and view, pay and dispute invoices on-line

WT: What are the challenges CN faces in using “new economy” methods of communication in an “old economy” surface transport mindset?

AE: Whether “old” or “new”, CN’s focal point has always been intense customer focus. The “new economy” allows us to find new ways to improve our customer service. Our eBusiness tools bring real tangible value to our working relationship with shippers. The biggest challenge lies in simplifying our internal processes to deliver fully integrated solutions where customers can do business with us in “real-time” over the Web.

WT: Finally, please give our readers an example of how CN provided value- added service with an eBusiness solution.

AE: CN’s new eBill system, launched in January, 2001, gives customers tight control of their invoicing and payment process. The invoice information online is easy to understand and is delivered to customers quickly. CN and its customers are enjoying improved productivity and less paper handling. eBill’s electronic dispute resolution feature also improves productivity significantly. It used to take between 10 and 15 days for a customer to resolve a dispute over an invoice; now it can be done in 48 hours. eBill is a major success—more than 300 shippers, representing almost 30 percent of CN’s business by annual revenue, have signed up for this service.