CSX Total Distribution Services Inc. (TDSI) earlier this month received four awards for quality excellence from the Association of American Railroads (AAR) at the 132nd Damage Prevention & Freight Claims Conferences in Atlanta, Ga.
Approximately 200 automotive terminals undergo AAR audits each year, and only the highest-scoring facilities—origin and destination terminals—receive awards for quality, according to CSX. The AAR awards distinguish CSX TDSI as “a leader in automotive logistics,” the railroad noted in its June 13 announcement.
The 2025 Destination Automotive Quality Excellence award honorees are: New Boston Terminal (Detroit, Mich.); Cementdale Terminal (Cincinnati, Ohio); and Tampa Terminal (Tampa, Fla.). TDSI’s Strawberry Terminal in Louisville, Ky., earned the Origin Quality Excellence award.
“CSX TDSI became the first railroad to earn four top honors in a single year, and it also set a record with three terminals receiving Destination Automotive Quality Excellence awards,” CSX reported. “Even more impressive, all three terminals achieved outstanding audit scores of 99.96% or higher.”
TDSI handles about 5 million vehicles per year. “We take those tens of thousands of vehicles every day, load them up on the railcars at origins, and we offload them at the destination terminals,” TDSI General Manager Bryce Thomas said in a special CSX video of TDSI operations (watch below). “It’s a very intense operation, but we are excited and proud to do it … We have built a culture around safety and quality, and they are the best in the industry at executing on that strategy, and they take great pride in what they do to be able to achieve these [award-winning] results … We’ve got the best team in the industry that is focused on making sure that we meet our customer’s needs each and every day.”
According to CSX, TDSI has received accolades in one or both categories (origin terminal and/or destination terminal) for the past nine years. Previous award-winning destinations include Jacksonville (Jacksonville, Fla.), Palm Center (Jupiter, Fla.), East Brookfield (East Brookfield, Mass.), Nashville (Nashville, Tenn.), and others, while origin terminals such as Strawberry and Talladega in Alabama have also been honored.
“Our customers trust us to handle millions of vehicles every year, and they want those delivered to the dealership without any kind of quality issues,” Bryce Thomas noted. “For us to be able to continue to perform at this level is phenomenal.”
