Class I awards: UP garners Nissan honor, NS recognizes 54 chemical shippers

Union Pacific Railroad recently won Nissan Motor Co.'s 2012 Logistics Carrier Conference Logistics Success Story Award, which recognizes carriers and service providers that exceeded performance expectations in the prior year.

UP was among 15 carriers and providers that received the award. The Class I created an optimized shipping schedule at its Port of Los Angeles facility that outlined the best days to move Nissan's vehicles, which helped reduce overall transit time.

"Our focus on delivering value through customer service made this award possible," said Linda Brandl, UP's vice president and general manager-automotive, in a press release.

Meanwhile, Norfolk Southern Corp. yesterday announced that 54 shippers had earned Thoroughbred Chemical Safety Awards for their efforts to safely handle chemical products in 2012.

Presented annually for the past 17 years, the award recognizes chemical companies and facilities that ship more than 1,000 carloads of federally regulated hazardous materials on NS' network without recording an incident in a given year. Fifty-one companies and three plants met that criteria in 2012.

Collectively, the customers safely shipped more than 127,000 carloads of chemical products used to manufacture various consumer goods, NS officials said in a press release. Shipments included industrial chemicals, petroleum products, biofuels and sulfur.