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Yesterday, CN announced a new scheduled potash service has “increased supply chain efficiencies” and provided quicker access to markets for western Canadian producers, according to a prepared statement.

To drive efficiencies, the Class I developed a tool designed to provide sales and operations personnel better visibility to customer orders for planning rail assets and scheduling shipments. CN aims to work closely with potash customers to minimize delays, expedite shipments, and provide a supply chain balance between placing empties and picking up loads.

The railroad also instituted a new potash fleet management team to work with customers to improve private hopper car distribution to mines for reloading. The team has helped reduce car cycle times from mines to destination points and return trips. In addition, cycling locomotives between a potash hub in Winnipeg and mines in Saskatchewan has reduced switching requirements and car dwell times at terminals.

The scheduled potash service “is the next chapter in our supply chain collaboration agenda, mirroring our scheduled grain service and our comprehensive management of coal movements from western Canadian mines to export terminals,” said Jean-Jacques Ruest, CN’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer. “By scheduling potash service, we have reduced car cycle times for privately owned hoppers from mine to destination and return to mine for loading by approximately 25 percent— a huge gain in efficiency for both CN and our customers.”