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What is Forward & Store?

Forward & Store (F&S) is Railinc’s centralized waybill repository that facilitates interline settlement and car tracing across the North American rail network. When you submit waybills to F&S, they become available to all connecting carriers who need the information.
Railinc is the railroad industry’s technology provider. Their Forward & Store system is the authoritative source for waybill information used in interline operations.

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Why F&S Compliance Matters

Submitting non-compliant waybills to Forward & Store can result in: - Rejection of your waybill submission - Settlement delays when interline charges can’t be reconciled - Operational issues when connecting carriers lack accurate information
Cedar automatically handles F&S compliance requirements so you don’t have to manage them manually.

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Automatic Normalization

When you send waybills through Cedar’s F&S automation, the system automatically applies industry-required transformations:

Route Processing

Cleans up route information to meet F&S requirements, including removing haulage details that downstream carriers don’t need to see.
Ensures all required references are present and properly formatted, and normalizes party data to meet Railinc validation rules.
Applies appropriate billing codes and equipment defaults based on the shipment type and load status.
F&S normalization goes beyond simple route cleanup - it applies the full set of transformations required for Railinc compliance.

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How It Works

1

Original Waybill

Your waybill with full route and party information
2

Normalization

Cedar applies all required F&S transformations automatically
3

Submission

The compliant waybill is submitted to Railinc
4

Distribution

Connecting carriers access the waybill through F&S

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Validation & Error Handling

Cedar validates waybills before submission and provides clear feedback when issues are found:

Pre-submission Validation

Checks for required fields and formatting before sending to Railinc.

Clear Error Messages

When validation fails, Cedar reports exactly what needs to be corrected.
If a waybill can’t be normalized (for example, missing required party information for Rule 11 shipments), Cedar will report the specific issue so you can correct the source data.

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Integration with Haulage

F&S normalization works seamlessly with Cedar’s haulage management:
  1. Haulage bills are sent to movement carriers with full haulage information
  2. F&S waybills are sent to Railinc with haulage information removed
This ensures each recipient gets exactly the information they need - movement carriers see the haulage segment, while Railinc and downstream carriers see a clean route.

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Getting Started

Forward & Store submission is configured through Cedar’s workflow automation. Contact your Cedar implementation team to enable F&S features for your railroad.
1

Review Requirements

Work with Cedar to identify which waybills should be submitted to F&S.
2

Configure Workflows

Set up automation rules for F&S submission.
3

Validate Output

Review sample normalized waybills to ensure they meet your requirements.
4

Enable Production

Turn on automated F&S submission.

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Questions?

For questions about Forward & Store configuration or troubleshooting submission issues, contact your Cedar account team or email [email protected].