Visibility makes rail freight more efficient

The rail freight sector is a crucial part of the logistics cycle worldwide. However, a lack of trackable unpowered rail freight cars hinders visibility across the supply chain. Addressing this issue through telematics and other tools would open up new efficiencies in rail logistics, leading to measurable gains for all stakeholders.

The global rail logistics market is enormous. Those long cargo trains quietly chugging over the horizon move huge quantities of containers and bulk goods around the world. In fact, there are 5.4 million rail freight cars globally.¹ The individual container on the back of a truck in front of you on the highway might be more visible, but the rail logistics sector remains vital to economies everywhere.

According to a recent study, 29% of freight in the US is still moved by rail. The EU is lower, at 12%, China is at 16%, while Russia serves its vast hinterland by moving a whopping 60% of its total logistics by rail.² Clearly, rail freight remains relevant around the world. Additionally, there is a measurable sustainability payoff in using rail freight as well. While estimates vary, one source claims rail freight produces 76% fewer carbon emissions per ton transported as compared with road transport.³ Given today’s focus on the environment, this is attractive to all concerned.

However, there is another side to this: the number of cars may be huge, but they’re far-flung and hard to track. The majority of rail freight cars aren’t fitted with tracking devices that provide telematics data; in 2024, fewer than 800,000 rail freight cars worldwide had them.⁴ This leads to a lack of data, which reduces visibility across the supply chain. This is a problem: logistics operators and the enterprises they serve globally prize the efficiencies that greater visibility unlocks. 

In order to understand what telematics can bring to the table, let us first consider the challenges that operators and other stakeholders in this sector are currently facing.

Challenges to rail logistics

Among other issues, rail logistics operators currently deal with:

1. A lack of visibility: Not knowing where one’s railcars are at any given time can seriously hamper planning. Delays, breakdowns, traffic congestion, and other avoidable bottlenecks lead to costly holdups.
2. Outdated systems: Globally, there has been a lack of investment in state-of-the-art telematics in this sector, in terms of both hardware and software.
3. A lack of interoperability: The systems that exist are fragmented and lead to silo-ing, making it hard to track assets. Even in an area like the European Union, where freight movement is theoretically all but free, a lack of interoperability between systems can hamper visibility as assets criss-cross the continent, traversing networks and borders.

Visibility is required

These issues lead to a sub-optimal utilization of rolling stock. Assets are under-used, for instance, or there are scheduling conflicts that can hamper a critical supply chain. All these issues could begin to be addressed if there were greater visibility across the entire chain. This is true of all logistics sectors, of course.

Operators and logistics professionals prize predictability, as it is crucial for decision-making. However, a lack of telematics data removes predictability from the equation. Frequently, this can be at quite a basic level when it comes to the rail logistics sector. 

In our connected world, this may seem improbable. But there is a fundamental lack of data being generated across the rail logistics cycle worldwide, due at least in some part to a lack of trackable rail freight cars, and the right platform to efficiently use the data they would be generating. Fixing this would yield dividends quickly.

The benefits of telematics data

Among other things, stakeholders in the rail logistics cycle would quickly see:

• Decreased setup times and fewer delays
• More efficient route management, yielding time, cost, and environmental benefits
• Streamlining of operations
• Better inventory management, because fleet management begins with visibility
• Better customer service, since these gains could be passed on
• Better compliance with new regulatory regimes

Of course, it should be noted that merely adding trackers to rail freight cars won’t deliver the promised benefits – the right platform to utilize that data is crucial as well. Such a platform would need to fulfill certain criteria for it to really deliver the theoretical gains that more data promises.

Success factors of a telematics platform

First and foremost, an efficient telematics solution in the rail logistics sector should provide real-time data. It should be designed for unpowered assets, as it can’t draw juice from the rail freight car’s own power source (see Box). It should provide thorough reporting across all the data points an individual operator or enterprise might need, and be set up to provide instant notifications if required. Crucially, it should be available as an API. Jettisoning an old system isn’t always feasible for a stakeholder in the cycle. Further, since interoperability is desired, it should be designed with legacy systems in mind, and it should be able to communicate with them all. 

InterFund Solutions’s IoTgo^® Track-Fleet is such a solution. It is an intelligent telematics monitoring and management platform, accessible through any web browser, and providing a full overview of your entire fleet. Further, it can be customized to meet your organization’s specific needs, including preparing customized reports and analytics. You can also maximize efficiency with multi-polygonal geofencing with just a few clicks.

“Our tracking solutions enable logistics managers to have the full knowledge of their railroad cars (enhanced visibility, transparency, and condition monitoring, among other things) and help to bridge knowledge deterioration, such as from poor documentation, or in case key people retire,” pointed out Johannes Forster, Head of IoT solutions at InterFund Solutions.

Adding telematics to rail logistics is required for unlocking the hitherto hidden potential of this particular pillar of the global supply chain. By doing so, more operators and enterprises worldwide could use rail networks that already exist in a better, more efficient way. Adding trackers to unpowered rail freight cars is one part of this. Using the best and most efficient telematics solution would complete the picture. 

Published: 14/08/2025