Voice of the Customer Survey

At CN, our customer relationships are built to last. We set our customer satisfaction targets high and remain aligned with our customers’ needs. Maintaining strong relationships also helps us identify and action important market trends that influence business decisions. Our goal is to continue improving year-over-year and continue to provide our customers with consistent, reliable and efficient service.

2023 Results

In 2023, the survey was done in two phases; May/June and September/October and distributed to rail freight revenue customers across all segments of the business.

Due in part to increased communication and safety efforts, our overall service rating in 2023 was 88% up from 85% in 2022. Initiatives of proactive customer notification, enhanced safety awareness, improved service performance and leveraging technology have all had a positive impact on the overall customer experience.

The key areas that increased customer satisfaction scores:

• More frequent notifications on arrivals or delays of merchandise
• Proactive alerts if service would not be met, with a commitment for next day service
• Productive recovery plans if/when required

Visibility is another area that improved for customers with a new five-day outlook, a reservations score card and a balance scorecard – all helping customers visualize, understand and better plan and manage their transport requirements.

CN also made improvements to service with enhanced capacity and increased safety by improving equipment, dispatching longer trains, deploying Smart Terminal automation technology and by optimizing terminal operations.

Areas for improvement include increased communication and socialization of CN’s sustainability efforts, like our company-wide decarbonization initiatives and further efforts to increase the ease of doing business with CN.

2024

For this year’s survey, our service rating target is 85%. The survey will be done in three phases: spring, summer and fall. The survey will be distributed to rail freight revenue customers across all segments of the business.

Addressing Customer Issues

We would like to thank our customers who take the time to answer our surveys. We listen to customer feedback and continue to improve year-over-year, providing our customers with service that is safe, consistent, reliable and efficient.

Here are some of the ways we continue to improve our service for you:

CN’s Capital Program

Over the last five years, CN has invested nearly $16 billion to help expand capacity on our network, enhance resiliency, and strengthen our performance for customers over the long-term. Our 2024 capital program, which is expected to be approximately C$3.5B (net of amounts reimbursed to customers), is focused on ensuring that the investments we make will boost capacity and enhance the safety, fluidity, and efficiency of our infrastructure.

• Safety and innovation: We intend to make additional investments in our Autonomous Track Inspection cars. This highly successful program examines our infrastructure at track speed to ensure it is safe and identifies where repairs need to be made before an incident may occur.
• Locomotives: We have purchased additional locomotives and are upgrading, modernizing or overhauling many more.
• Speed and capacity: Two areas in Western Canada will be double tracked to facilitate movement of cars to the West Coast. Expanded capacity in CN’s North Vancouver tunnel will improve fluidity in the area. Extending three sidings in Western Canada will help maintain train speed and keep cars moving.
• Track upgrades: We will upgrade the Northern Saskatchewan St-Brieux subdivision from Humboldt to Melfort for increased grain loading.
• Rolling stock: CN received 500 additional high-capacity grain cars to continue our fleet renewal program for the agriculture industry. In the coming years, CN will acquire over 1000 cars support forest products, iron ore and other new business.
• Facilities: A critical investment in Canada’s economy, the first phase of CN’s new logistics hub in Milton is currently under construction. Additional expansion to CN transloads and new automation technology at intermodal terminals will enable more customer throughput and efficiencies in key markets.

Products and Services

We are continually working to improve the products and services currently available at CN, such as our recent updates to the CN ONE eCommerce transactional site. At the same time, we are also continuing to introduce new products and services that meet the needs of our customers. We are expanding service offerings for customers through multiple-year investments in technology that upgrade services, improve terminal operations and provide better visibility across the supply chain.

Innovation

CN is investing in technology that enhances safety, efficiency, and creates value for our customers. As the deployment of our key technology projects ramp up over the years, our new cloud-based systems will:

• Increase safety and reliability
• Improve inspection reliability and efficiency
• Provide rich data analytics
• Generate predictive modelling
• Drive capacity enhancements

Ongoing Communication:

At CN, we are committed to partnering with our customers to help them grow their businesses. To do this, it is imperative that we maintain ongoing conversation with our customers. We offer multiple customer touchpoints to encourage the free flow of information so that we can continue to better understand our customers’ markets as well as their key drivers.

We also work in partnership with our customers to systematically develop growth strategies. We continue to review train and railcar requirements so that we can align capacity with current and future customer demand. By monitoring market conditions and anticipating changes, our goal is also to be able to proactively adjust our services accordingly to your changing needs.

Grain Plan

Every year CN puts out a comprehensive Grain Plan that outlines the details of how we plan to meet the anticipated volume of grain expected to be moved in the crop year. The objective is clear. It is the safe, effective, efficient, and timely movement of grain throughout the coming crop year. Learn more about our Grain Plan.

Winter Plan

Our annual Winter Plan sets out the actions and innovations that we have implemented to enable us to maintain our operations through the winter at a level acceptable to the needs of all of our customers while ensuring we continue to operate in a safe and efficient manner. The Winter Plan serves as a framework to ensure that we meet the needs of our customers and stakeholders in the challenging winter months ahead. Learn more about our Winter Plan.

Building for a Sustainable Future

Delivering Responsibly is at the heart of how CN is building for a sustainable future. We are raising our game to deliver for a sustainable future, to make a meaningful difference for our people, our customers and the many communities where we operate. Learn more about how CN is building for a sustainable future: Delivering Responsibly.

We continue to learn, adjust, and evolve. Our priorities for 2024 and beyond are to maintain a high quality of service for our customers and continue to innovate to deliver improved products and services.