NS e-commerce offers ‘Railcar Event-Text Message Alerts’

Norfolk Southern said Tuesday its customers now can receive text messages notifying them of the status of shipments with Railcar Event Alerts.  Using a simple application on the company’s e-commerce site, accessNS, customers can set up alerts to advise them of a variety of events for as many as three railcars, containers, trailers, or chassis at a time.

NS says once an alert is set up, Railcar Event Alerts checks the status of the equipment every hour and sends a text message to the customer’s cell phone if the status has changed.

Information available through Railcar Event Alerts includes: changes in ETA or ETI; bad order notification; when a shipment is received from another rail carrier; when a shipment is placed for a shipper’s customer; and/or when a car in the shop has been repaired and is moving again.

For customers needing assistance with e-commerce applications, Norfolk Southern also has added live online chat support.  NS stresses that this is in addition to the toll-free help line and email support the accessNS team already provides.

By clicking the “Live Support” link, available in the top left corner of the accessNS title bar or as a button on the accessNS sign-on screen, customers can open a chat session with support personnel in realtime.  This new feature is meant to allow the accessNS support team to help more customers in less time.