News Release

BNSF Announces Recipients of Second Annual Damage Prevention Awards

FORT WORTH, Texas, November 28, 2001:

The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company (BNSF) today announced eight customers have received the Second Annual BNSF Damage Prevention Award. The following companies were recognized for consistently practicing safe loading procedures:

• Hub Group, Inc.
• J.B. Hunt Transport, Inc.
• Yellow Freight System
• The Boeing Company
• Ford Motor Company
• Caterpillar Inc.
• Maersk
• Aguilar Warehousing & Distribution

Criteria for the award is based on adherence to approved BNSF and AAR loading methods, number of freight claims filed (excluding derailments or theft), and customer claim ratio to total customer revenue. BNSF also looks at requests from the shipper for assistance with loading from BNSF’s Damage Prevention Services (DPS) and cooperation with DPS in correcting any unsafe loading practices. In addition, BNSF evaluates the number of distress incidents and shipments that are improperly loaded and can shift and create unsafe conditions.

“Preventing damage to freight is critical in the transportation industry and our customers play a vital role,” says Chuck Law, director, BNSF Damage Prevention. “Properly prepared shipments reduce the risk of injury, unnecessary train delays and damage to our customers’ products.”

Through its subsidiary, The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company, BNSF operates one of the largest rail networks in North America, with 33,500 route miles of track covering 28 states and two Canadian provinces. BNSF is an industry leader in Web-enabling a wide variety of customer transactions. The railway moves more intermodal traffic than any other rail system in the world, is America’s largest grain-hauling railroad, and hauls enough coal to generate more than 11 percent of the electricity produced in the United States.

BNSF Headquarters
BNSF Railway Company
2650 Lou Menk Dr. 2nd Floor
P.O. Box 961057
Fort Worth, TX 76161-0057
Phone: (817) 352-1000