Rail supplier news from AITX, IMC, Holland, Cordel, Cedar AI, Bourque and ICC

American Industrial Transport Inc. (AITX) has named Kurt Higginbotham president, effective Oct. 1.  Previously, he served as founder, president and chief executive officer of Appalachian Railcar Services. Joining Higginbotham is Sean Hankinson as chief commercial officer. AITX welcomed Hankinson with its acquisition of The Andersons' leasing business. Most recently, Hankinson was vice president and general manager for The Andersons' Rail Group. Higginbotham and Hankinson join Melanie Connellee, who is chief financial officer and chief operating officer of AITX.

IMC Cos. recently hired Jennifer Shaffer as marketing director. Prior to joining IMC, Shaffer served in marketing-related positions at Mallory Alexander International Logistics and, prior to that, as manager of facility services and support for Lynx Services. In her new role, she oversees and branding, public relations, customer communications and internal marketing for the IMC's family of brands. Jennifer has more than 15 years with various marketing teams within the logistics and supply-chain industry.

Holland and Cordel announced a new agreement to expand Holland’s suite of track measurement services to include LiDAR technology. Holland’s LiDAR powered by Cordel will provide customers with a range of data applications such as track imagery, clearance validation, line of sight measurements and condition assessments . Using track geometry and LiDAR data applications, customers can see a digital twin of their infrastructure.

Cedar AI, a provider of state-of-the-art artificial intelligence technology for rail planning and management, and Bourque Logistics, a leader in industrial shipper yard-management systems, announced this week their expanded collaboration to integrate their systems. The companies will also collaborate on sales and marketing, and have designated Joel Christensen to lead the effort.

Earlier this month, the Illinois Commerce Commission held two supplier-diversity policy sessions allowing the state’s large regulated public utilities and Class Is to report on their supplier diversity efforts in 2020 and identify their procurement goals for 2021. The seven Class Is doing business in Illinois reported collective diverse spending at $1.5 billion in 2020. The Sept 21 policy session on transportation featured presentations from Union Pacific Railroad, Norfolk Southern Railway, CSX and Kansas City Southern.