An iconic American company that enjoys a near legendary reputation across the country and beyond, BNSF Railway delivers a effective transportation solution for the emerging wind energy industry. The company has the personnel, network, equipment and technology to make your wind shipment cost-effective and convenient, and provides a customized shipping solution for all your wind components: towers, blades, generators, hubs, nacelles and more. PES caught up with the company’s Teresa Perkins.
For us, the wind market is one of our key areas of operation – which is perhaps surprising, given the relative immaturity of the industry. Nevertheless, we doubled our wind business in 2010 (at a time when the overall market was down 60%) and we feel that 2011 is going to be better still.
Dedicated team
We can attribute last year’s major growth to the formation of a dedicated wind team, which is now definitely driving our business forward. We created the team in 2009 both in response to the increased demand and to stimulate more business, and I have to say that it’s worked. We’ve listened to our customers’ needs, and taken on their opinions and feedback, and this has enabled us to fine-tune our offering. We’ve also got new sites, more cars dedicated to an equipment plan, service design, customer support… all the things which you would expect from a company of our size and stature. We are there to meet your needs.
At the heart of our service is now a dedicated, three-man team that will sit down with the client for every new project and work with them to get all the details right – and when you’re transporting items as specific and sometimes challenging as towers and nacelles, this level of customer care is essential.
What’s also essential for us is that we’re seen to be supporting the industry, and getting involved at the grass roots. When we relaunched our wind offering we invested in PR, marketing, etc., but we also went to the American Wind Energy Association’s Windpower conference and got involved with what was happening. We also sit on the logistics council of AWEA and that also demonstrates our long-term commitment to the industry.
