The Rail Trace window is where you will view the current equipment that is being traced on rail sites. You will also be able to add additional equipment, remove equipment, set the auto trace on or off, and manually activate a trace. The Rail Trace window is accessed by clicking on the File pull down menu, choosing run, then Run Rail Trace. For automatic tracing to occur, this window needs to be open and active on the Tracer. The Rail Trace window contains three main frames as well as several additional controls.
Window Frames
Active Containers
The Active Containers window is the main data window for the Rail Tracing. All containers that have successfully traced at least once are displayed in this window, in addition to the most recent data recorded by Track and Trace.
Container Status Icons
The red and green container status icons show if the most recent Rail Trace returned data. If the Track and Trace system is set to use a Master Rail site, there may also be a yellow indicator that a container has traced on the master site, but no further information was traced at the rail in possession of the container.
Data Fields
The majority of fields represent details that are traced directly from the Rail site. Any fields that are not detailed below are pass through data from the Rail site.
Reporting Rail
The Reporting Rail indicates what site Track and Trace is using to provide trace results. This field is also a drop down style selection box, and can be used to change the assigned Rail site.
Trace Type
The Trace type indicates whether the container is being traced on an Import Leg or an Export leg.
Arrived, Grounded, Released
The Arrived, Grounded and Released fields are calculated fields, based on a combination of the Event Codes entered in the Event Mapping and the Event Date/Time traced on the site.
Rail Billed Time
The Rail Billed Time is a Date/Time that is captured when the Rail Bill Status indicates the Rail Billing is received. Note that this time will reflect the time of the Trace cycle where the status change was traced, not necessarily the exact time the Rail Billing was received.
Last Free
For the CSX Nationwide Rail site only, this is a calculated field based on the date associated with the NTFY event and adding two days, not counting weekends. All other sites that provide LFD this data is directly from the Rail site.
Last Success
The Last Success field indicates the Date/Time each container’s trace data was updated by the system.
Next Trace
The Date/Time displayed in the Next Trace field indicates when the individual containers will next be added to the Active Pending Containers portion of the Window.
Recently Added Containers
Containers that have been added to the system via Add Containers, or directly from a TMS system will appear in this frame until they have been successfully traced at least once. Once a container has been traced successfully at least one time the container will be moved to the Active Container frame. Containers that remain in the Recently Added screen for too many days without a successful trace may be deleted from the system, based on the General Settings.
Active Pending Containers
Containers are shown in the active pending frame when they are in queue for the next scheduled Auto trace. These containers, and the data from the previous trace are also visible in the Active Containers frame.
Last Attempted Auto Trace
The last Attempted Auto trace field will display the last Date/Time that an Auto Trace occurred. This date time is updated with each completed Auto trace and indicates the General state of the Rail Trace system. The Date/Time will be displayed with a red background if the Auto Trace has not recently succeeded.
Auto Trace Timer
The Auto Trace timer will generally show a running countdown until the next scheduled Auto Trace. If Auto Tracing has been turned Off, no timer will appear, and the Auto Tracing will not occur. During times outside of the daily trace schedule, the system will display ‘Tracing will resume during business hours’. Once the Auto Trace Timer counts to 0:00 the system will automatically perform a full trace cycle. This cycle includes the tracing of containers in the Recently Added Containers list, and then containers in the Active Pending Containers list. Each list will generally be traced alphabetically by trace site.
Add Container
The Add container button will open the Equipment entry Window allowing containers to be manually added to the trace queue. Three pieces of information are required to add any container for Rail Tracing: the container number, the Rail site, and the choice of Import vs Export tracing. Once the Containers are added, they will be visible in the Recently Added Container portion of the Rail Trace window, and will trace on the next scheduled Auto Trace.
Hide/Show Pending Traces
Click this button to temporarily hide the Recently Added and Active Pending Container lists, this will provide additional viewing area for the Active Container list.
Trace Now
The Trace Now button will trigger the same tracing cycle as the Auto Trace Timer, but will not reset the timer countdown.
Search
The Rail Trace Search can be used to see historic data for any container in the system, provided the data has not yet been archived. This information will include, when a container was added to the trace queue, the results of each time the container was traced and when the container was removed from the tracing queue. This information can be used to track the history of container data, especially in cases where it appears that the current trace data does not match previous container results, such as changed LFD or Hold information.
More / Less
The More button is only visible while the tracer is actively performing a trace. Clicking the More button will display a small window that will display a date/time stamp and running status information about the current trace cycle.
Grid
Clicking the Grid Check box will allow for an Edit Mode in the Active Containers frame. Columns can be rearranged by using drag and drop. Deselecting Grid will lock the edits in place.