Technological advances in railroads' work order reporting systems

Work order reporting systems (WORSs) enable crewmen to report completed work directly from locomotives. This is accomplished by placing mobile data terminals onboard the locomotives. The terminals then communicate the completed work information to the railroad's host computer system over a data radio network. This approach avoids after-the-fact clerical input. Railroads can therefore reduce the clerical staff currently assigned to perform manual data-entry tasks. A reduction in car-hire costs and improved customer services are additional benefits resulting from the use of WORSs. After describing the WORS benefits, the authors discuss the system configuration.<>