Effective: August 1, 2009

Part 1 – Single and Unit Train Lottery

Submitting Lottery Equipment Requests

All General Tariff Single Car and Unit Grain Car Requests must be submitted online using BNSF’s web site – Railcar Equipment Request.

Link to BNSF Secured Access Login and then access Railcar Equipment Request to submit Lottery orders.

Lottery Requests Acceptance Period
All General Tariff Single Car and Unit Grain online requests must be received between 12:01 a.m. Monday, through 11:59 p.m. Wednesday (72 hours) during each lottery week*.

These lottery weeks are the first three FULL weeks of each month. Only orders submitted during these times will be accepted.

*In some instances, we may adjust Lottery dates due to conflicts with holidays.

Lottery Award Results and Status

Awarded - BNSF will notify lottery participants by email of their lottery order acceptances, usually on the Thursday (Lottery processing day) or Friday of the Lottery Week. Lottery award results will be emailed back to customers using the email addresses supplied in their BNSF.com profiles. Customers may modify or cancel lottery orders prior to 11:59 p.m. CST/CDT Wednesday of the Lottery Week. After the cut-off time, all awarded equipment will be placed as car orders.

Not Awarded - Lottery participants that are not awarded equipment in a given Lottery Week will receive an email on Thursday to remind them to resubmit their lottery request(s) for the next period.

Equipment “Want Dates” and “Permit Numbers”

Want Dates - Each Lottery Week corresponds to a future period (roughly 30 days forward) during which awarded empty cars would be delivered to the facility listed in the request. This future period is called the “Want Date”. The ‘want dates’ available for delivery of empty tariff cars are divided into three periods each month. The first and middle periods are 10 days in length. The last period extends through the balance of the month.

First Period - 1st through 10 th of the month

Middle Period - 11th through 20 th of the month

Last Period - 21st through the end of the month

Within the 10-day period offered, a preferred ‘want date’ will be accepted for lottery equipment requests. The BNSF Agricultural Products Operations Group will determine the best delivery date as the ‘want date’ and reserves the right to modify the ‘want date’ as necessary, within the same period.

Permit Numbers – When a request has been awarded, it is automatically entered into BNSF’s Railcar Equipment Request system, and a 10-digit ‘permit number’ is generated for Singles, and a 7-digit ‘permit number’ is generated for Units. Both the ‘want date’ and ‘permit number’ are viewable in the Summary page of Railcar Equipment Request, as well as in Ag Reports, both of which can be found in BNSF’s secure customer web application.

Questions regarding the estimated time of arrival for lottery cars should be directed to BNSF Agricultural Products Operations Group at either of the following phone numbers;

Units 800-234-9396 (option 5)

North Region Singles 800-234-9396 (option 3 and 2)

South/Central Region Singles 800-234-9396 (option 3 and 3)

Lottery Participation Restrictions

The Tariff Lottery program was implemented in order to supply cars to small unit car and single car shippers that could not necessarily access BNSF COT program. To ensure that such shippers have a fair and equal access to equipment when a Lottery system is needed, the following restrictions to lottery participation have been created.

1. Any facility, that does not currently have a request pending, may place either a unit or a single car request within a given lottery week.
2. Unit requests will only be accepted for bona fide BNSF served unit train stations as defined by Item 12230, BNSF Tariff 4022 series.
3. Unit train loading facilities must have a minimum 24-car track loading capacity and a maximum 54-car loading capacity. Item 12230, BNSF Tariff 4022 series requires a facility loading multiple cars or a unit to do so with a single spot of cars.
4. The number of cars on a single car order request will be restricted to the on spot track capacity of the elevator, but in no case (a) more than 15 cars for any non-unit facility or (b) more than 48 cars for a unit train loading facility. Customers may not order more cars for placement at any location than track capacity allows and train service provides. Item 12165, BNSF Tariff 4022 series.
5. No lottery requests can be accepted for/or ordered into shuttle facilities (loading and/or unloading facilities).
6. Requests will not be accepted for facilities (elevator and/or track) that are currently deemed inoperable, unsafe or undeliverable by the BNSF.
7. Single car tariffs cannot be combined to ship as a unit of any sort.
8. Each bona fide elevator is eligible for either one unit (up to 48 cars) or one single (up to 15 cars) order.
9. Companies with multiple facilities may submit one request for each facility.
10. Requests can be submitted from a single central location or from the actual loading facility itself.
11. Incomplete Lottery Requests may be discarded.
12. Any requests that represent some type of gamesmanship on the part of the lottery participant to unfairly gain an advantage over other participants may be discarded by the lottery administrators.

Method by which Equipment Awards are Chosen

All accepted requests will be assigned a nine-digit, computer generated, random number (priority numbers). The priority numbers are used to ensure fairness. These priority numbers are assigned to eliminate the need to be the "first in line". Requests received are prioritized and awarded according to the Lottery Week the request was received (class date), and then by the priority numbers assigned.

Multiple Requests Received:

1. In the event BNSF receives multiple requests for a given facility, all from the same person or office, the last request received by date/time will be used and all prior submitted requests will be ignored.
2. In the event BNSF receives multiple requests for a given facility from different groups or individuals (agents of the facility), the request coming from the individuals that are part of the facilities’ ownership staff will be used and all others (agents requests) will be disposed of. If none of the requests received are part of the facilities’ ownership staff, the original requester for that facility in the previous lottery will be selected.
3. In the event BNSF receives multiple Maintenance Requests* (see below) for a given facility, only a request received from the individual or group initiating the lottery request shall be accepted as valid, thus keeping this request alive. A “Maintenance Request” is a lottery request to keep alive a previous lottery request that has carried over when it failed to be awarded equipment in one of past lottery weeks.

Keeping Your Lottery Requests Current and Limits on Pending Lottery Requests

All requests not awarded in a period will remain prioritized in the database. As long as request(s) are resubmitted in each subsequent Lottery period, requests will ultimately be awarded. Some changes in the lottery requests from one week to the next are accepted while others are not.

1. Lottery participants cannot change from singles to units or units to singles (Service Mode). If a customer changes Service Mode, their lottery request in that Service Mode will expire and a new lottery request will be created in the selected Service Mode. Their ranking in the previous request will NOT be carried over to the new Service Mode, thus their new request will be ranked along with all other new requests for that Lottery week.
2. Lottery participants cannot change the choice of facilities.
3. Changing the number of cars ordered within a Service Mode (Units or Singles) is allowed with no loss in ranking.

Restrictions on Application of Lottery Awards

General Tariff Single and Unit Grain Train Requests will be allowed to change origins once accepted in accordance with Item 12163, BNSF Tariff 4022 series. Lottery cars awarded cannot have their origins changed to go to any shuttle facility at any time.

Once a Lottery request has been accepted by BNSF, it is subject to the $100 per car cancellation charge, if the request is canceled before the placement period ends. A general tariff car order may be cancelled without charge if the order remains unfilled (i.e., cars have not been assigned to the order) after the placement period. However, if cars have been assigned and are enroute, the car order may not be cancelled. For further car order cancellations and change of origin rules, please refer to Item 12163 BNSF Tariff 4022 series .

Tariff Lottery car placements are subject to available capacity and may vary due to conditions beyond BNSF's control.

Part 2 - General - Applies to both
Single and Unit General Tariff Car Requests

1. When a shipper has several unfilled grain car requests and car supply becomes adequate, BNSF will protect request spacing up to a maximum of 7 days.

2. Locations making covered hopper cars empty may reload such cars provided they are for BNSF line haul movement and the reloader has placed an equipment request prior to reloading the car. After the equipment request is received and prior to reloading a car, the BNSF Agricultural Products Operations Group will determine if General Tariff requests may be used to fulfill the reload order. The equipment request must designate that the order will be filled from cars making empty at that facility. Requests for General Tariff reloads may be restricted by available capacity.

BNSF shippers reloading foreign owned or leased covered hoppers (non-BNSF furnished) without the authorization of the car owner are in direct violation of CSD 435. BNSF will refuse to accept loaded billing on any foreign covered hoppers reloaded without authorization and will return cars to the shipper for unloading.

3. Covered hopper car requests for loading processed grain products at the processing facility for BNSF line haul movement must be requested in advance. Requests for processed grain products will not be restricted by available capacity, but will be subject to the equipment request cancellation penalty.

4. BNSF may reject equipment requests at loading locations which, in BNSF's judgment, will not be capable of accepting cars due to existing equipment requests or service capacity conditions either at the immediate location or the involved service corridors.

5. Car Service Rule 15 requires the following information for all equipment requests:

• Date and time
• Name of Party
• Name of person receiving request
• Kind and size of cars wanted
• Number of cars wanted
• Date wanted
• Commodity to be loaded
• Destination and route

6. Uniform Freight Classification Tariff 6000 Series - Railroad Rules & Regulations ("UFC"), Rule 4, Freight Liable to Damage Other Freight or Equipment, states "Carriers are not obligated to receive freight liable to impregnate or otherwise damage equipment or other freight. Such freight may be accepted and receipted for 'Subject to delay for suitable equipment,' or may, for lack of suitable equipment, be refused."

7. UFC, Rule 27, Loading and Unloading, Section 3, states, in part "Shippers must comply with carriers' rules regulating safe loading of freight and protection of equipment ... Weight of lading must be approximately the same on each side of the car ... The weight of load on one truck must not exceed approximately one-half of the load limit weight stenciled on car ... Section 5. - To complete unloading, consignee must remove all lading ... and any other non-railroad owned material that was part of the inbound shipment and secure interior equipment ... Consignee is required to ... close all top hatches and bottom outlets and exterior doors."

8. Equipment request information for individual shippers is confidential and will not be disclosed.

9. Equipment requests for single car shipments need to be provided reasonably in advance of the want date for all single car and processed grain traffic. During periods of heavy demand, BNSF reserves the right to insist that the car request be received at least seven days in advance and not more than 30 days in advance in compliance with Item 12165, BNSF Tariff 4022 series.

10. BNSF will only accept equipment requests from the actual loading elevator or its designee.

11. BNSF reserves the right to change these policies and procedures from time to time as business conditions warrant. Reasonable public notice of future changes will be provided.

12. Should any policy hereby stated conflict with any BNSF Tariff rule, the Tariff rule will preside.