The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), part of the Department of Transportation, needed a more durable mobile computer for its field inspectors to replace their laptops that were failing 35% of the time. The new solution would have to improve the inspectors' productivity in data collection and research, so that inspectors could more quickly identify safety issues and intermodal system opportunities. After testing several models, FRA chose Panasonic's semi-rugged Toughbook laptops with their magnesium alloy cases, shock-mounted hard drives and spill-resistant keyboards to protect against dust, rain and other outdoor environmental hazards. The results have been astounding. The Toughbook mobile computers drastically reduced the FRA inspectors' downtime in the field and dramatically reduced their laptop annual failure rate to less than 1%.

Intermodal transport systems are designed to enhance the economic performance of the US transport chain by using multiple modes, such as piggy-backing, wherein truck trailers are placed on rail cars for part of the trip. In order to keep the railroad an efficient part of the transport chain, FRA became focused on maximizing in-the-field productivity for their inspectors. One of the first things to be implemented was the deployment of commercial-grade laptops to their inspectors. However, since their inspectors work in outdoor conditions, they were experiencing failure rates over 35% which didn't provide the efficiency they needed to make the program successful. So, the decision was made to upgrade to more durable laptops. After testing several models, FRA chose the semi-rugged Panasonic Toughbook® 71s.