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Thanks for your comments. When someone posts something as a response to a posting of mine I can only assume that it is directed toward my statements. I DO know that the majority of crews are honest and hard working. But there are some who are not. And I was on the receiving end of one such crew. According to the "facts" that the lawyers were able to determine, the crew of the local which delivers in this area, lost the waybill and certificate of analysis for one particular covered hopper. Recognizing that the car was in the number series that includes cars assigned to deliver to us, this crew photocopied legitimate documents with this railcar's reporting marks and numbers replacing the numbers on the actual documents. The car was then delivered to us, and since it contained a non human consumption grade of the same material that we use, it passed the id tests. We unloaded and released the car. In the meantime the crew found the real papers, and merrily delivered the empty car to the actual consignee. Because the material was a different grade than we use it caused us a lot of processing problems. We went back to the manufacturer with the car number and with the certificate of analysis. As you can imagine they got upset, not least because the customer who was supposed to get the carload was on their case for sending an empty car. After we determined that we were all talking about the same carload, the three of us then took what we knew to the railroad. They were mystified as the only place where the false documents were on file was with the delivery made to us. None of the intermediate yards had the car being consigned to us, and the proper papers were delivered with the car to the actual condignee two days after we released it as empty. It was months before we were able to sort out what had really happened. But in the meantime, since we manufacture products for human consumption we had to scrap everything that was in production at our plant and pay the landfill fees. We had to shut down and clean EVERYTHING out. We even had to scrap some of our equipment because it was more expensive to clean than to replace. And we have had the Federal Agencies on our backs ever since because we did not immediately recognize falsified documents. We were out over a million dollars cash plus lost production, the other company lost about two weeks of production and had to lay off their people for that time because they did not have material. The crew that did this, they got a couple of days off without pay. So yes, conductors and engineers can and have produced falsified documentation. As I stated I do know that very, very few crews would do this. A fact for which I am thankful. I know that this problem is not particular to railroads, the recent news about food and drug recalls shows that the same problem is present in my business also. I wi***hat we all would be more willing to turn in the "bad actors" in our businesses, but it seems to be human nature to avoid confronting problems as long as possible. I know that railroading is physically and emotionally difficult work. I have a number of relatives who have worked or currently work for a railroad, including my brother who is a conductor. My hat is off to you all. While I do enjoy watching railroaders producing safe and efficient transportation service on a magnificant scale, I recognize that it is not something that I personally want to do for a living.
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