NORFOLK, Va. — Norfolk Southern 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.
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 include 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 when a car in the shop has been repaired and is moving again.
For customers needing assistance with e-commerce applications, Norfolk Southern has added live online chat support. This is in addition to the toll-free help line and email support the accessNS team has provided all along. 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 real time.
This new feature allows the accessNS support team to help more customers in less time, officials said.
