YARD MANAGEMENT
technologyreview

THE YARD OF A LARGE AND BUSY DISTRIBUTION operation may seem a chaotic place, with trucks entering and leaving, yard jockeys whisking trailers to and from dock doors, and all of it happening rapidly and with virtually no break in the action.

Keeping track of all that movement, and keeping track of every trailer and the valuable inventory it holds, can in fact be daunting. But the evolution of yard management systems (YMS) and real-time location systems (RTLS) has gone a long way toward providing DC managers with greater visibility and control of the yard. Put to use, the tools can lead to greater productivity and efficiency in yard operations. Managing trailers efficiently means managing the inventory they hold efficiently, and that benefits operations inside the DC and indeed across the supply chain.

Daunting as the yard management challenge may be, it appears the stakes may be about to get higher. Dwight Klappich, an analyst for the research firm Gartner Inc., believes that both regulatory and operational pressures are likely to make efficient yard management even more important in the future. For instance, if pending changes to hours-of-service regulations curtail truck drivers’ working hours, truckers will insist that customers get their drivers in and out of DCs as quickly as possible. They may even start penalizing customers who hold drivers