Patent ID: 8045962

Claim:
A method for the management of railcar assets comprising: receiving data regarding a time and location of a railcar and a status of a product on the railcar; storing the data in a railcar database; comparing the status of the product on the railcar to a status alert threshold; issuing a status alert when the comparison reveals that the status of the product on the railcar meets the status alert threshold; monitoring status alerts issued based on the status of the product on the railcar meeting the status alert threshold, including instances where a status alert is resolved before anyone takes action; based on the monitoring, determining a value of repetitiveness of status alerts issued based on the status of the product on the railcar meeting the status alert threshold; comparing the value of repetitiveness of status alerts issued based on the status of the product on the railcar meeting the status alert threshold to a repetitiveness threshold; and when the comparison reveals that the value of repetitiveness meets the repetitiveness threshold, issuing a proactive alert.