The following definitions apply to this part:

Affiliated companies has the same meaning as “affiliated companies” in Definition 5 of the Uniform System of Accounts (49 CFR part 1201, subpart A).

Bad order cars means cars that must undergo repair before completing their trips due to mechanical, safety, or structural problems.

Cut-off time means the deadline for requesting service within a service window, as determined in accordance with the Class I rail carrier's established protocol.

Delivery means when a shipment is actually placed at a designated destination or is constructively placed at a local railroad yard that is convenient to the designated destination. In the case of an interline movement, a shipment will be deemed to be delivered to the receiving carrier or its agent or affiliated company when the shipment is offered for interchange.

Designated destination means the final destination as specified in the bill of lading or, in the case of an interline movement, the interchange where the shipment is offered to the receiving carrier, its agent, or affiliated company.

Industry spot and pull means the local placement (“spot”) and pick-up (“pull”) of railcars (regardless of ownership) at a shipper's or receiver's facility.

Manifest traffic means shipments that move in carload or non-unit train service.

Original estimated time of arrival or OETA means the estimated time of arrival that the rail carrier provides when the shipper releases the shipment with all necessary and customary documentation or, in the case of an interline movement, when a shipment is reported delivered in interchange and confirmed to have physically been delivered to the receiving carrier with necessary and customary documentation for furtherance.

Planned service window means a service window for which the shipper or receiver requested local service, provided that the shipper or receiver made its request by the cut-off time for that window.

Service window means a window in which the rail carrier offers to perform local service (placements and/or pick-ups of railcars) at a shipper's or receiver's facility. A service window must be made available by a rail carrier with reasonable advance notice to the shipper or receiver and in accordance with the carrier's established protocol.

Shipment means a loaded railcar that is designated in a bill of lading.

Time of arrival means the time that a shipment is delivered to the designated destination.

All Class I rail carriers shall report to the Board on a weekly basis, in a manner and form determined by the Surface Transportation Board (Board), the data described in this section. Each Class I rail carrier shall provide, with its initial data submission, a document explaining its methodology for deriving the data. If a carrier's methodology changes, the carrier shall file an updated methodology document with the first data submission that reflects the methodology change. The Director of the Board's Office of Economics may require a carrier to revise its methodology and submit revised metrics for past periods to ensure data quality and utility. The service metrics in this section apply only to the data collection contemplated under this part.

(a) Original estimated time of arrival—(1) OETA metric. The OETA metric is the percentage of shipments on a carrier's system that moved in manifest service and were delivered to the designated destination no later than 24 hours after the OETA, out of all shipments on the carrier's system that moved in manifest service during that week. For the purpose of calculating the OETA metric, once a carrier has communicated an OETA to a customer, that time shall not be changed by any subsequent changes to the original trip plan of the car, unless the change to the original trip plan is made in response to a shipper's request or a shipper's failure to make cars available for pick-up.

(2) OETA applicability. The OETA metric applies to shipments that travel as manifest traffic only within the United States. The OETA metric does not apply to cars placed in bad order status during shipment.

(b) Industry spot and pull (ISP)—(1) ISP metric. The ISP metric is the percentage of scheduled spots or pulls (i.e., those requested by a shipper or receiver before the applicable cut-off time) that were successfully performed during the planned service windows, out of the total number of spots or pulls that were scheduled for that week. A Class I rail carrier must report the ISP metric for each of its operating divisions and for the carrier's overall system. For reporting at the operating division level, a Class I rail carrier may establish reporting regions using any geographic boundaries it chooses, provided that it identifies the boundaries in its methodology document submitted to the Board.

(i) Failure to spot a constructively placed railcar that has been ordered in by the cut-off time applicable to the customer for a planned service window shall be included as a failure in calculating the ISP metric. This includes “spot on arrival” railcars (i.e., railcars that may be placed without placement instructions) that have been constructively placed for any reason.

(ii) Failure to spot a “spot on arrival” railcar for a planned service window shall be included as a failure in calculating the ISP metric if the railcar arrived at the local yard that services the customer and was ready for local service before the cut-off time applicable to the customer.

(iii) If a Class I rail carrier cancels a service window, other than at the shipper's or receiver's request, each planned spot or pull from the cancelled service window shall be included as a failure in calculating the ISP metric.

(iv) When a rail customer causes a Class I rail carrier to miss a spot or a pull during a planned service window, those spots or pulls will not be considered failures in calculating the ISP metric.

(2) ISP applicability. The ISP metric shall not include unit trains, intermodal traffic, or cars placed in bad order status after arrival at the serving yard.