Navis, a part of Cargotec Corporation, and the provider of software for freight rail planning, scheduling and analytics, has announced the development of a new module for the optimization and management of crew scheduling, master rosters and working rosters.

The system, a part of the cloud-based Navis Rail Planning Suite, also provides the tools to manage short-term changes to timetables and staff availability; electronically capture and record staff attendance; and extract reports for payroll and analytics.

According to Tom Forbes, Head of Navis Rail, freight railway crew management is one of the largest variable costs for a railway and general-purpose personnel scheduling and rostering systems do not meet the challenges of workforce management for a freight railway. “Rail undertakings need rail-specific process management to build safe and efficient crew rosters that simultaneously consider personnel, route, traction, workflow, rules, regulations, labor agreements and other constraints,” said Forbes.

Navis Rail’s Workforce Management, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) system, is integrated with the company’s suite of service design tools for train and rollingstock planning. The complete application supports railways’ workforce management end-to-end, from master roster development through to capture of time and attendance. Its mobile portal allows workers to view their rosters, see roster changes, respond to call-in shift offers and record their attendances electronically.

To register for the Navis Rail webinar “The Importance of Workforce Management Tools in Freight Rail Operations,” on April 14 at 3:00 PM CEST / April 15 at 11:00 AM AEST, click here.

For more information on Navis Rail, visit https://www.navis.com/en/products/rail-solutions/