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Wheelset Intelligence

Take control of wheelset spend with AI-enabled wheelset failure predictions.

Wheelsets are the single largest maintenance expense for most railcar owners, yet most have little say in how, when, or where replacements happen. Wheelset Intelligence changes that, telling you which wheelsets to proactively replace, and when. 

The Most Expensive Repair You Don't Control

More than half of most railcar owners' annual maintenance spend goes to wheelset replacements. Despite that, most of those replacements are charged at AAR rates, costing hundreds more than what you'd pay at a home shop or contract facility.

The challenge isn't just identifying which wheelsets should be changed. It's knowing which wheelsets should be changed now and  being able to access those cars for repairs.

If your organization has on-site repair capabilities or established shop network relationships, predictions from Wheelset Intelligence can help you save up to $1,000 per wheelset replacement.

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See What's Coming: Act Before the Railroad Does

Wheelset Intelligence shows you wheelsets with a high probability of failure that are inbound to a location where you can make repairs, helping your mechanical team prioritize repairs before they turn into foreign repair costs.

Take Back Control Of:

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Where Repairs Occur

Address cars already at or en-route to repair locations, reducing foreign repair spend

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When Cars Leave Service

Understand when cars will be offline for repairs and reduce unexpected time out of service. Give shop teams advance notice of inbound cars needing attention.

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What Types of Components are Used

Select new vs turned wheelsets or component brands of choice

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Foreign Wheelset Spend

Save up to $1,000 per repair by making replacements at lower-cost facilities

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How it Works

Wheelset Intelligence is a predictive model trained on millions of railcar wheelset lifecycles through Railinc's Component Tracking Program, giving it unmatched predictive accuracy.

The model analyzes: 

  • WILD dynamic force data
  • Mileage trends
  • Railcar type

Wheelset Intelligence provides a risk ranking that highlights which wheelsets are most likely to escalate toward alert levels where foreign repairs happen, then marries that data to real-world operating conditions so you know which cars you can actually access for repairs.

Rather than a snapshot, you see a trend, so you can distinguish between a momentary reading and a car that's consistently flagged as high-risk.

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Insight You Can Act On

Configured for Your Operations

Working in partnership with your mechanical team, we customize your analysis to the scenarios that make sense for you.

  • Eliminate Noise: Tighten your predictions to the levels you want your team to act on
  • Location-Specific Settings: Set alerts for only the locations where you have repair capabilities
  • Critical Context: Add wheelset mileage and other data that helps inform if a wheelset should be changed

Proven Results from a 10,000 Railcar Fleet:

200K

reduction in wheelset spend per year

39%

improvement in control over wheelset repairs

5%

wheelset escape rate

Is Wheelset Intelligence Right for You?

Wheelset Intelligence delivers the most value for organizations that have the ability to make repairs at industry or at contract partners but lack the visibility to know when to intervene on cars.

Not a Fit

  • Are not responsible for maintenance costs
  • Are not able to access railcars to make repairs
  • Have a small fleet with low maintenance costs

Delivers Value

  • Want to reduce foreign repair costs
  • Contract with MRUs, a contract shop network, or have repair capabilities at industry
  • Have at least a 300-railcar fleet

Stop Paying for Repairs You Could Do Yourself.

 Let us show you how Wheelset Intelligence helps fleet managers take back control of their largest maintenance cost driver. 

How We Track Impact: Measures of Success

Wheelset Control Ratio
The percentage of wheelsets changed by you versus foreign, railroad-executed repairs. A higher WCCR means more repairs on your terms.
Escape Rate
The percentage of at-risk cars you had the opportunity to intervene on but didn't — that were ultimately replaced by a railroad at AAR rates. Lower is better.
Annual Wheelset Replacement Spend

 Total spend on wheelset changeouts year over year, including the ratio of turned vs. new wheelsets used.