EDI and Tracing Information
STG's wholesale intermodal service ("STG") offers a superior menu of EDI and tracing products that can streamline the way you do business, as well as reducing costs. With your continuous input, STG has developed unique EDI and tracing products.
What is EDI?
EDI, or Electronic Data Interchange, is the electronic exchange of structured business documents between two businesses. EDI is submitting shipping orders or receiving invoicing electronically. EDI also means:
- Increased speed and accuracy of document and information exchange.
- Elimination of re-keying of data, which results in increased data integrity.
- Reduction of labor and file maintenance costs by eliminating paper handling tasks and storage.
- Almost 80 percent of our customers currently use EDI, and have experienced a greater ease of doing business.
How does Stacktrain’s EDI product work?
We’ve designed our EDI product to be flexible, so we offer an array of options to choose from for each type of EDI transaction. All options are based on using a value-added network (or VAN) such as Kleinschmidt. The VAN provides routing and mailboxing between the customer’s and STG’s computer systems.
Shipping Orders
Customers can choose from the following options for submitting shipping orders (EDI transaction 404) to STG:
- Via the STG website, using your browser interface, you can transmit your order information.
- Directly through a VAN, this in turn routes your information on to Stacktrain.
Invoicing.
To receive invoicing (EDI transaction 410) from STG, customers can choose from the following options:
- Through a VAN that can format the invoicing information so that it can be fed directly into your company’s computer system.
- Via our convenient Auto-fax Statement, which provides you with a weekly summary statement automatically via fax.
Whether you are using EDI to submit shipping orders or to receive invoicing information, your transaction costs will be reduced. And, using EDI to submit shipping orders makes it much easier to comply with railroad [no bill, no in-gate] policies.
Invoicing
To receive invoicing (EDI transaction 410) from STG, customers can choose from the following options:
- Through a VAN that can format the invoicing information so that it can be fed directly into your company’s computer system.
- Via our convenient Auto-fax Statement, which provides you with a weekly summary statement automatically via fax.
Whether you are using EDI to submit shipping orders or to receive invoicing information, your transaction costs will be reduced. And, using EDI to submit shipping orders makes it much easier to comply with railroad no bill, no in-gate policies.
Payments
This option allows customers to make electronic payments on outstanding invoices.
Tracing
Our tracing service is offered to those customers who utilize EDI for 90 percent of their transactions (shipping orders and invoicing). In fact, our tracing system is triggered by orders submitted by EDI.
We understand that there are many more events (in-gates, cross-towns, groundings, etc) for an intermodal shipment than for a carload shipment, so that’s why we’ve designed a tracing system that augments traditional railroad Car Location Messages (CLMs) with our own terminal activity data. We add value by increasing real-time accuracy and event reporting, so that when you ship intermodally, you receive the type of tracing information you need.
Our Customer Service Staff is available to provide you with up-to-the-minute tracing information, including:
- The location of your shipment
- The train your shipment is on
- Estimated Time of Grounding (ETG)
- Estimated Time of Availability (ETA)
- Automatic Delay Notification
And, for those customers who cannot receive tracing information via EDI, we offer a browser based Internet web tracing product that provides you with information about your shipment daily.
At STG, we understand how important it is to have timely, accurate information about your shipment —information that makes a difference in your business, and ultimately in the businesses of your customers. Whether it’s EDI or tracing, STG is always looking for a better way to keep you in the know, no matter what the industry standard is.
For more information about EDI and tracing, please call our Customer Service Center chics@stgusa.com.