YMS UPDATE
according to Gabe Vittorio, director of dedicated logistics for Keller. The company works with its customers to ensure that the features that clients want to use are in place and ready for them, while putting different measurements in place for customers so they can see—and understand—the metrics that mean the most to them. “We have a lot of conversations with our customers before we deploy YardLink for them. We make sure that we cater any reporting or speci c features or capabilities to what they want, so that it is part of the package as soon as they get it,” Vittorio says. “That means gathering a lot of information and doing legwork beforehand to make sure that our product truly is turnkey and that clients can run it on day one and get exactly what they want from it. That means a lot to them.” A Flexible and Responsive Approach The in-house nature of YardLink’s development means that Keller can be exible and responsive to the changing needs of YMS users and to the nuanced priorities that drive their operations. “Being exible and responsive, and being able to continually cater to our customers, means not only that the YMS will be deployed but it will be meaningful to the site that uses it,” Vittorio says. Clients new to YardLink appreciate their newfound capabilities to identify inef ciencies and bottlenecks, evaluate driver productivity, and nd areas for improvement, he notes. For instance, one YardLink client began to use the system after formerly using pen and paper for the drivers’ tasks, and using a spreadsheet to track trailer inventory. Clerks were often overburdened with responsibilities and drivers had to wait after nishing a task before getting their next one. Shifts often ran long and service suffered. With YardLink, the client saw a drastic improvement in the ef ciency of assigning tasks to drivers, and clerks were able to make assignments to drivers as
drivers to the clerks to the people in the business that want to see high-level metrics. It has to be easy to use and easy to navigate or it won’t be used. YardLink is always used.” YARD MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS: Designed for Real-World Conditions Yard Management Solutions understands that a YMS is valuable only if it is actually used. With that in mind, ease of use is one of the primary advantages of Yard Management Solutions’ YMS. And it’s a critical advantage, says Colin Mans eld, vice president of the Michigan-based company. He tells the story of training staff in the YMS at a large vehicle manufacturer in Alabama before their shift, and they walked out of training and started using the system immediately. “If you think about who actually touches a system like ours—a gate guard, a yard jockey in a truck, a shipping clerk working second shift—they’re not typically technical positions,” Mans eld says. “So if it’s not easy to use, then the system just won’t get used. “I’ve watched competitors’ implementations die for that reason, and a new client comes to us and says, ‘We’re not using this because it’s too complicated.’ In one afternoon, anybody can learn the YMS we built,” he says. One key feature of Yard Management Solutions’ YMS includes Eagle View, a digital twin of the yard. “Eagle View is basically a live top- down map of the facility,” Mans eld says. “It’s all real time. You look at it once and you know your yard. It threads the needle of being simple to glance at while also having an incredible depth of detail.” For enterprise yards, YMS offers a multi-view version, which is a grid of Eagle Views all updated in real time. This allows network directors to look at a dozen sites at once, and immediately see if one is in trouble. Yard Management Solutions doesn’t just stop at showing the yard. “We actually run it,” Mans eld says. YMS’s automation
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soon as they came in. Trailer locations and statuses were quickly updated and easily viewed. The client found that YardLink had reduced their costs related to yard management by 20%, Vittorio says. A common theme of the feedback that Keller gets from YardLink users is that they appreciate its ease of use. Some clients have never used a YMS before, while others switch from a YMS that they found unsatisfactory, often because of the dif culty in using it, Vittorio says. Building An Intuitive System For instance, one new YardLink user had shifted from a YMS that they felt included too many unnecessary steps, dragged out each move, and was not intuitive. The client trained on YardLink one morning and was using it by the afternoon. Users were “ecstatic” about the lack of cumbersome components to the system, Vittorio says. “The ease of use was a big key when we were developing the YMS before we started to market it and deploy it to our sites,” Vittorio says. “We knew it had to be user-friendly for everyone from the ” We have a lot of conversations with our customers before we deploy YardLink for them. We make sure that we cater any reporting or specific features or capabilities to what they want, so that it is part of the package as soon as they get it. GABE VITTORIO , Director of Dedicated Logistics, Keller Logistics Group
84 Inbound Logistics • September 2026
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