Drones Are Watching: Railroad Irks Workers With Unmanned Aircraft
14 March 2018 - 11:29PM
Dow Jones News
By Paul Ziobro
Union Pacific Corp. riled employees recently when it started
flying drones over some of its railroad yards to ensure workers
were following safety guidelines.
The aerial spotters were looking for any number of behaviors
that deviate from the railroad's rule book, from passing between
railcars that are less than 100 feet apart to climbing off moving
equipment.
The response from the railroad's rank and file? Flooding Union
Pacific's safety hotline with complaints that the drones make their
jobs more dangerous.
Workers say that rather than promote safety, the drones create a
hazard by distracting them when they should be laser-focused while
around 200-ton locomotives and railcars moving along the tracks,
according to Steve Simpson, general chairperson with the
International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and
Transportation Workers. "They are no longer looking ahead or at
their task at hand," he said. "They're looking up."
Mr. Simpson, whose general committee represents 1,600
conductors, engineers and other rail workers in the southern U.S.,
also advises members on complaints to the Federal Aviation
Administration and Federal Railroad Administration. He said there
is no way to distinguish a drone flown by Union Pacific from one
operated by an unauthorized party.
As of March 1, Union Pacific temporarily grounded the aerial
observation so it can share its findings with the unions but plans
to resume the program in coming weeks. "Their leadership will help
us establish a collaborative process to address unsafe behaviors
and protect employees, " Union Pacific spokeswoman Raquel Espinoza
said.
Mr. Simpson said he suspects safety isn't the company's only
motivation. Workers see drones as a means to discipline them, he
said, with escalating penalties that can lead to termination. There
is no indication anyone has been fired for an infraction spotted
from up to 400 feet in the air, but Mr. Simpson said workers have
been cited for violations as a result.
Ms. Espinoza said Union Pacific has been using drones to conduct
federally mandated field testing and will coach employees to
correct behavior that could cause serious injury. "We are finding
drones are valuable tools that can help us reach our ultimate goal
of operating in an incident-free environment and ensure employees
go home safely," Ms. Espinoza said.
Union Pacific last year reported its second safest year on
record, though the reportable personal-injury rate of 0.79 per
200,000 employee hours was 5% higher than in 2016. The amount of
money it sets aside for personal-injury liability has declined in
each of the past three years.
Drone use is still in its infancy in the railroad industry.
Companies have sought to incorporate it into operations to inspect
bridges and track, assess damage after natural disasters and map
their networks. Other proposed or active uses have included
spotting trespassers, air-quality tests and aerial photography.
Earl Lawrence, who runs the FAA's drone-integration office, said
he was unaware of any other industries where employers are using
drones to enforce safety rules. "Every day we see inventive ways of
using aerial platforms," he said.
Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s BNSF railroad, which, like Union
Pacific, operates in the Western U.S., has worked closely with the
FAA to find ways to incorporate drones into its operations. After
obtaining waivers to fly drones outside the line of sight of their
operators, BNSF in 2015 flew an unmanned, fixed-wing aircraft over
270 miles in New Mexico to inspect tracks. The railroad said it was
the first commercially operated drone to fly beyond its pilot's
line of sight within the lower 48 states.
Since then, BNSF has received permission to conduct tests on
more than 2,000 miles of track, including at night.
Norfolk Southern Corp. uses drones only for bridge inspections,
a spokeswoman said. CSX uses the aircraft to monitor its rail
network, collect data and conduct security checks. Drones also have
been used as part of installing so-called positive train control, a
new, federally mandated safety system, a spokesman said.
Union Pacific first received FAA approval to use drones in 2015.
It now has 126 employees on staff certified to fly them and has
used them to inspect bridges and flood damage, among other uses.
Union Pacific plans to have as many as 250 trained drone pilots by
the end of 2018 and is also looking into self-flying drones.
Union Pacific first deployed drones to monitor employees in
December 2017 at a rail facility in Ste. Genevieve, Mo., later
expanding to 14 locations. While railroads already make use of
fixed cameras to monitor operations, aerial footage provides a new
vantage point for yardmasters in facilities that can be more than
100 tracks wide and scattered with visual obstacles like cars and
equipment.
"It's a useful tool," said Mr. Simpson, the railroad union
leader. "But it's being used as a discipline tool and that worries
me."
Write to Paul Ziobro at Paul.Ziobro@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 14, 2018 08:14 ET (12:14 GMT)
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