Finding specialized labor in the rail industry has been a challenge even before COVID hit. An aging population of rail industry experienced operational labor has made it imperative to train new crews and also retain the more experienced workers (even as trainers for future generations of railroaders). Most terminals are suffering for locomotive and railcar movers operators, as well as ground crews and operational personnel in general.
Automatization is an increasing trend due to these labor constraints. Most Terminals are investing in technology to depend less on human labor and more on technology. This is the approach we are taking at SIPSA. And we are always making sure our offers in the labor marketplace are competitive, not only on the economic side of things but also on personal development and work-life balance.
In México, our ongoing operation has not been affected yet due to labor shortages. But in order to keep getting new business, we have needed to be creative and innovative on operations design, always making sure to make safety our main priority.