In 1980, the Chessie System and Seaboard Coast Line
Industries merged to form CSX Transportation, a railroad network now
headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. CSX controls about 21,000 miles of
rail, mostly east of the Mississippi River. Incidentally, they have one of the
cleverest typography-based logos we have ever seen: check it out at the upper
left of the screen capture below. The main About Us page (“About CSX”) is here.
OVERALL GRADE: B
minus
Products/Services: B
The main About
Us page offers an overview with a well-chosen set of four topics, each briefly
explained and provided with a link to further information. The Company
Overview page is also concise and well-focused, with the short paragraphs
and headings that are so vital when dealing with the short attention span of readers
on the web.
Our Commandment 6
of About Us pages is “Honor thy visuals.” CSX has some great photos of
trains, but other types of images would be a useful supplement. For example, on
the Company
Overview page, why not bolster the statistics on railroad mileage, port
access, etc., with map showing CSX routes (a consolidated version of the
state-by-state maps such as the one on this
page), plus graphs of products shipped and fuel consumption per ton for
rail vs. road freight?
As noted in Our
Evolution and History, CSX dates its beginnings
to the founding of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in 1827. The Interactive
Timeline, covering nearly two centuries on ten separate pages, is
disappointingly focused on consolidations and mergers, offering no overview of
the company’s role in the national and local economy. A little more corporate
storytelling, please: such a long, rich history should be used to enhance the
company’s reputation for growth and reliability.
The impressive list on the Awards
and Recognition page would be more likely to be read if it were broken up
with illustrations, such as the logos of the organizations that gave the
awards. We could find no page for press and media mentions of CSX: an odd
omission.
Personality: C
The CSX Leadership
page offers brief bios of management and the board of directors. These don’t
give a strong sense of who’s driving the train and where it’s heading. On the
other hand, there are options for downloading a CSX screensaver,
ringtone,
or calendar.
Offering this rather than better bios is an odd choice of priorities.
Accessibility: B
The Contact page
starts with emergency contact information and spells out what is considered a railroad
emergency: well done. Under TellCSX are a wide variety of options with online
forms for each.
TAKEAWAY
If you’re counting your company history in centuries, make
your history work for you by using it to show (in text and visuals) what your
company has accomplished and where it’s heading.
Does your Web site’s “About Us” section
accurately convey your organization’s history and capabilities? Every two weeks
we evaluate one example, grading it in three areas that are key to potential
customers: Personality (Who are you?), Products/Services (What can you do for
us?), and Accessibility (How can we reach you?). To talk about your About Us
page, contact us!
Today’s example was chosen at random;
CorporateHistory.net has no ties to this company.
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