I n the past, yards were often treated as an afterthought, relegated to spending time in the shadows of more high-pro le and expensive areas of the supply chain. Yards ultimately represent a small fraction of the overall spend and too often are viewed as part of either transportation or warehousing, rather than as their own category, says Matt Yearling, founder and CEO of YMX Logistics. The adoption of yard-related technology that can bolster effectiveness remains relatively low, but Yearling believes companies are beginning to look at yards with fresh eyes and increased focus. Small Spend, Big Impact “Yards are still not well understood,” Yearling says. “Yard management is not viewed as being strategic because it’s a small part of the spend. What people don’t understand is the big impact of that small part of the spend and how critical it can be to both warehousing and transportation operations.” For years, many organizations invested heavily in transportation management, warehouse management, and ERP systems while leaving the yard largely dependent on manual processes, says Derek Pedersen, senior technical product manager, YMS, with Kaleris. That created a blind spot at one of the most important control points in the supply chain.
“When trailers can’t be located, when docks aren’t synchronized, or when assets sit idle waiting for direction, every downstream process slows with them,” Pedersen says. “The reality is simple: If the yard isn’t running ef ciently, neither is the rest of the supply chain.” With that in mind, yard management systems have gone from being a relatively unknown piece of the supply chain to a must-have tool—“almost like connective tissue,” says Colin Mans eld, vice president with Yard Management Solutions. “The yard is usually the one place that’s still being run on a clipboard, on a spreadsheet, on somebody’s memory or institutional knowledge,” says Mans eld, noting the expensive mistakes that can occur as a result. “Those mistakes include detention and demurrage, spotter labor, dock doors sitting idle, product spoilage, drivers waiting at a gate,” he says. “If a trailer sits in the wrong spot for a few days, a WMS won’t know that and a TMS probably won’t know that. Nobody really does until somebody walks the yard with a clipboard. A shipper that doesn’t have an effective YMS is not only missing visibility—they’re paying for that gap every day.” The yard also is typically where carriers most frequently interact with shippers. “A driver who waits 90 minutes at the gate ends up telling every other driver, leaving a bad Google review, and on
and on,” Mans eld says. “Eventually, that can show up in the rates that you are quoted.” Gabe Vittorio, director of dedicated logistics for Keller Logistics Group, says he has seen a clear increase in the conversations around yard management systems for shippers and how they can prove valuable. AI plays a prominent role in the growing sophistication of YMS solutions and helping make yard management in general more ef cient and based on more accurate and meaningful data. “It’s necessary to have visibility into what’s really going on in the yard and to understand where opportunities lie for improvement,” Vittorio says. Inbound Logistics caught up with four leaders in yard-related technology solutions to better understand how their products strengthen the way yards operate. Kaleris understands how critical it is to never view the yard as an isolated operation. The Georgia-based supplier of supply chain execution software, including Kaleris YMS, knows the importance of seeing the yard in the context of its clients’ entire supply chains. “Our customers rely on us to connect information across multiple supply chain nodes, including transportation networks, ports, terminals, rail KALERIS: A Unified View of the Yard
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