Let me elaborate a bit.
First and foremost, let's go back to the question, do we consider and take into account severe winter weather? We have processes in place that effectively do that.
When we have extreme winter weather, when we drop below certain temperatures, especially in the areas where we operate north of the lakes, in very extreme cold climates, we reduce our train speed. We have much more restrictive policies for these detectors that we talk about, these impact detectors.
When steel hits steel and you have cold as a multiplier, the likelihood that you're going to have a break in the rail increases—in cold weather. Effectively, for these machines, the tolerances, which they measure in kips, the measure of the steel hitting the steel, those systems are turned to a point that the standard in the wintertime is much more stringent than the standard in normal operating temperatures. So, effectively, we have more bad orders during extreme winter weather in an attempt for us, proactively, to take these cars out of trains that could potentially break a rail, which would ultimately end in a track-related derailment. So yes, we do take that into account, but still, the best system cannot predict each and every one of them.
On the other issue, about accountability and about efficiency testing, we have human beings who are required to comply with the rules. Unfortunately, human beings at times rationalize. Some employees, through experience, may have taken a shortcut, or they may have not gotten off a piece of equipment. We may have employees who are out there who get off equipment at six miles an hour, and in their mind they're convinced they can safely do that, but the reality is that the rules say you can't detrain at any speed greater than four miles an hour.
Through these tests, we go out in the field and validate that what they're doing versus what they should be doing is the same. And yes, that's what causes a lot of the frustration with the employees. When we find a difference, we do hold employees accountable. We do have statements. Unfortunately, we do have to implement corrective measures through discipline.
If you stepped back into this company 10 years ago, the occurrence or the chance that an employee would have been disciplined for violating an operating rule was not there, certainly not to the level that it is today.
So I participate in these efficiency tests—and Mr. Vena, Mr. Marshall, and our general managers. We're at a very senior level in this company. We go out and we ride trains. We go out and we efficiency test with our operating officers. We go out and we interact with the running trades employees who are required to comply with these rules. So absolutely there are checks and balances, and absolutely there's a consequence, but as much as we implement those consequences, I can't guarantee that I'm always going to have 100% rules compliance. That's my standard and that's what I'm striving for, but the reality is that as long as I'm depending on a human being to comply with a rule, there are going to be times when they make a mental error, either consciously or unconsciously. They're not going to comply with the rule and we're going to have a derailment, we're going to have an injury, or we're going to have a death.