Careful Car Handling

STARR Technology

The mission of Damage Prevention Services is to ensure damage-free delivery of your products by providing dependable and innovative transportation services. With Satellite Tracking and Ride Recording (STARR), our experts can work with you to see that your product arrives at its destination in factory-fresh condition. STARR enables us to monitor cars on a real-time basis anywhere in the United States, Canada and Mexico. If an impact occurs, Union Pacific Railroad is notified via satellite of the time, date, location, train speed, and G forces of that impact. With that information, we notify transportation managers who follow up with corrective actions and training. Union Pacific Railroad operates the largest fleet of STARR cars in the industry and because STARR also gives us the capability to identify corridors and terminals where damage might occur, it allows us to develop plans of action to prevent a recurrence of an overspeed impact.

Careful Car Handling Teams

At every major Union Pacific yard, our damage prevention field managers lead cross-functional teams that are specifically assigned to eliminate overspeed impacts. Through the use of radar samples, STARR data, damage statistics, and feedback from impact recorders, the teams develop corrective action plans which may include the use of Dowdy Retarders, fine-tuning retarders or actual changes in the grading of the track. The teams continually work to meet and exceed improvement goals.