Transcript Auditing, DX, Paperless Billing

Creating a Maintenance Plan
Auditing, Data Exchange and
Paperless Billing
Carol Scarborough
Auditing
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Auditing Maintenance Bills
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The rules for auditing are in the AAR Field Manual and
AAR Office Manual
AAR Office Manual contains the Price Matrices
All freight railroads and freight car owners must
subscribe to the AAR Interchange Rules
Contract shops use AAR Rules for job codes and
other reporting
Price Master is available from Railinc for $425 each
issue, or $1,700 annual subscription
May 23, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc.
Maintenance Management Seminar
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Auditing
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Auditing Maintenance Bills
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Contract shop general rule:
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Contract shops use AAR labor standards for applying labor
time to repair work
Material costs will be a percentage over actual cost of material
In extreme heavy repair cases, actual hours may be charged
Labor and material can be negotiated
Individual agreements can vary
DTE Rail Services, Inc.
Maintenance Management Seminar
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Auditing
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Auditing Maintenance Bills
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Both railroad and contract shop billing is in AAR Billing
Repair Card format (500 byte)
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Billing can be generated and supplied to you
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manually
floppy disk
electronic file via email
AAR Car Repair Billing via Data Exchange (Railinc) – now
required for Class I’s billing. Mandatory 1/1/2009.
DTE Rail Services, Inc.
Maintenance Management Seminar
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Auditing
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Auditing Maintenance Bills
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Minimum AAR Billing Repair Card Requirements:
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Railcar initial and number
Kind of car (not mandatory for Group Billable repairs)
Date repairs completed
SPLC (location name may be used in addition)
Load/Empty indicator (not mandatory for Group Billable
repairs)
Location on car
Quantity
DTE Rail Services, Inc.
Maintenance Management Seminar
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Auditing
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Auditing Maintenance Bills
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Minimum AAR Billing Repair Card Requirements
(cont.)
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Condition Code
Job Code Applied
Description of repairs
Why made code
Job Code Removed
Responsibility Code
Net Charge
DTE Rail Services, Inc.
Maintenance Management Seminar
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Auditing
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Auditing Maintenance Bills
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Other items to audit
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Duplicate billing for same repair
Components standard to car (incorrect repair)
Correct number of components per car
Correct pricing
Correct job code and why made or condition code
Calculation of total amount
DTE Rail Services, Inc.
Maintenance Management Seminar
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Auditing
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Auditing Maintenance Bills
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AAR Rule 112.H.3:
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If entire bill is improperly rendered, return unpaid for
correction
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10% when bill is $10,000 or less
7.5% when bill is $10,001 to $200,000
5% when bill is $200,000 or more
If net amount of error or questionable charges (not counting
car number) exceeds limits of the total amount, return the bill
no later than 60 days from receipt to the billing road or shop
Returned invoices can be resubmitted within 12 months from
date of return. Corrected invoice will to back through DX.
DTE Rail Services, Inc.
Maintenance Management Seminar
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Auditing
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Auditing Maintenance Bills
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AAR Rule 112.H.4
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Exceptions to paid repair bills=
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Within 7 months from receipt of bill (DX date)
Except if rebilled from lessor, then 10 months
Must be more than $50 (except for incorrect car numbers)
All exceptions to bill taken at the same time
Exception letters and supporting documentation can be sent
via mail or as PDF attachment to an email.
Must send copy of original BRC
Billing Road has 90 days to handle and/or issue CBA
DTE Rail Services, Inc.
Maintenance Management Seminar
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Auditing
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Auditing Maintenance Bills
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Measurement and Analysis is important
Look for problem cars
Look for problem components
Need to gather mileage on cars, real or estimate
Projection of maintenance and planning
May 23, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc.
Maintenance Management Seminar
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Data Exchange
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Data Exchange – What is it?
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Car Repair DX was deployed in 1970
Redesigned 2004 – 2006
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New Environment / Flexibility
Enhancements to Survey, Online PM, Internet BRC
Expanded Format
Authorized by AAR Circular C-10397
May 23, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc.
Maintenance Management Seminar
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Data Exchange
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Data Exchange – Why participate?
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Minimizes data entry and eliminates manual auditing
of bills
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Facilitates paperless billing and re-billing
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Supports a more detailed audit by checking against AAR
pricing
By importing repairs from DX the backup can be used for
rebuttal billing, CBA backup, etc.
Feeds a repair database for historical trending and
analysis of repairs by car, component, etc.
Currently required for submittal for Class I defect card
and JIC damage claims and will be mandatory on
1/1/2009
May 23, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc.
Maintenance Management Seminar
12
Data Exchange
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Data Exchange – Who participates?
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Submitter – submits input to the CRBX system for car
repair data
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Receiver – received output from the CRBS system on
equipment which they own or control
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No cost for submitter only data
Base fee of $140 per month
$5.75 for 1,000 records over base (each line is a record)
CRB Committee working on removal of fees to
receiver as part of 1/1/2009 deadline for paperless
billing
May 23, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc.
Maintenance Management Seminar
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Data Exchange
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Data Exchange – How do you participate?
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Create your own system – maintain your own internal
pricing and audit system capable of generating the
500 byte CRBX (CRIP) file.
Use a 3rd Party Vendor – partner with a qualified
vendor that can submit and or receive (500 byte
CRBX file) on your behalf
Use the Railinc Internet BRC – basic input system
allowing users to input car repair data at no charge
(submitter only)
May 23, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc.
Maintenance Management Seminar
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Data Exchange
May 23, 2008
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Maintenance Management Seminar
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Data Exchange
May 23, 2008
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Data Exchange
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After CRBX is run, a system generated email is
sent to active participants containing a PDF
summary information of their outbound file
CRBX Outbound Detail Files (CROP) are Zipped
and put into receivers FTP mailbox which they
can pull within the next 20 days
May 23, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc.
Maintenance Management Seminar
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Data Exchange
May 23, 2008
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Maintenance Management Seminar
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How to become a CRBX Submitter
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Must send an e-mail to [email protected] stating that you want to
become a submitter to CRB.
Your email must contain the complete company name and
address, with a contact person's phone and E-mail information.
Your e-mail must also include list of the repair mark(s) registered
with Umler
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Or include a list of marks which you will be submitting on
behalf of
Must submit a TEST 500 byte CRB file via email
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The file must be in a ZIP file with naming convention of
MARKcripyymm (ex: MARKcrip0802)
May 23, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc.
Maintenance Management Seminar
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How to become a CRBX Submitter
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After you have created your (Zipped) 500 byte test file it must be
attached to an e-mail and sent to [email protected] so it can be
download and processed in our TEST system.
You will receive your TEST file results (and associated
Error/Warnings) so you can see what records the system
accepted or rejected.
You may want to review this output, make corrections and then
resubmit this Test file to again be reprocessed.
When your TEST file is approved by Railinc then you will be able
to go live in our CRBX Production System.
DX Admin will create a CRB profile and an inbound FTP mailbox
for you to use in Production.
May 23, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc.
Maintenance Management Seminar
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How to become a CRBX Receiver
1.
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Must send an e-mail to [email protected] stating that you want to
become a receiver of CRB.
Your email must contain the complete company name and
address, with a contact person's phone and E-mail information.
Provide a list of (receiving) car mark(s) that you own or lease that
has your stenciled mark.
Complete and return a Railinc credit application.
DX Admin will set up profile in CRB with the owner’s mark or
marks.
May 23, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc.
Maintenance Management Seminar
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How to become a CRBX Receiver
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DX Admin will create a outbound FTP mailbox for the CRB file to
be placed
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FTP mailbox id and password will be provided
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Must be able to open a ZIP file from the Railinc FTP server.
CRBX file receivers will also receive the 2008 DX schedule,
current file layout and a copy of the FTP users manual.
DX Admin will work with the customers on how to pull down the
outbound file.
May 23, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc.
Maintenance Management Seminar
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Car Repair Billing Procedures Manual
Required Reading for creating your own system
May 23, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc.
Maintenance Management Seminar
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Paperless Billing
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In 2008 AAR Office Manual:
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Rule 112.G.2:
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“Data supporting the invoice presented in accordance with Rule
112.G.1 must be submitted to the Car Repair Billing Data
Exchange System in accordance with Rule 113.”
Rule 112.G.7:
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“Presentation of the invoice will be either paper mailed to the
responsible part or as a PDF attachment to an email presented to
the Billed Party. The presentation method will be at the discretion
of the Billing Party. Regardless of method chosen, the repair
detail source data must be submitted to the Car Repair Data
Exchange System in accordance with Rule 112.G.2 and Rule
113.”
May 23, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc.
Maintenance Management Seminar
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Paperless Billing
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In 2008 AAR Office Manual:
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Rule 112.H.2:
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“The receipt of the invoice for the purpose of invoice payment and
auditing will be defined as the date that the detail source data
supporting the invoice is available (Rule 113) from the Car Repair
Billing Data Exchange System. In the event that your company is
not downloading your repair data from Car Repair Data
Exchange, the receipt of the invoice will be defined as the date
that the Data Exchange data would have been available
subsequent to the date that the Billing party submitted the detail
source data.”
May 23, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc.
Maintenance Management Seminar
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Paperless Billing – After 1/1/2009
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Defect cards and JICs are going away and will be
submitted and stored thru Railinc.
The billing party will no longer be required to submit a
paper or PDF invoice.
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Generic e-mail address database that will allow delivery to a
company and not to a person
The invoice will be the Data Exchange system records.
The billed party will have access to their data exchange
details without a fee.
The time limits for exception handling will be reduced
May 23, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc.
Maintenance Management Seminar
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Conclusion
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Many changes in Car Repair Billing
Fleet Managers need to be current on changes
in the industry
Maintenance Plans save $$
Plan for maintenance important to fleet size
Proper fleet size can drive out excess cars
Maintenance no longer the “black hole”
May 23, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc.
Maintenance Management Seminar
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Conclusion
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Maintenance on railcar fleets is expensive
Through Proactive planning and management
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Costs can be controlled
Predictive costs can be planned for and budgeted
Cars can experience higher utilization
More product can be moved with less expense
through proper fleet sizing
May 23, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc.
Maintenance Management Seminar
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