Yard Management Systems

This whitepaper’s objective is to help industry professionals understand the basics of yard management and appointment scheduling systems.

Yard Management Systems are software applications that manage trucking activity incoming to and within an industrial site such as a distribution center, production campus, or container terminal.

Yard management software is designed to manage the dock scheduling of all incoming loads; optimize and manage labor resources responsible for moving trucking assets on the site; and track all private fleet and third party trucking assets being held on the site or campus. If you think that yard management systems are only of interest to companies with vast complex yards, then you may be surprised to learn that small and medium size businesses are now investing in this technology.

Firms that require logistics excellence as a core competency are beginning to understand that a yard management application is an integral component of a supply chain execution suite that also includes warehouse and transportation management systems (WMS & TMS).

This document helps to understand who is investing in yard management software and why; the operations that this software manages; the economic benefits that are realized; and the considerations that companies need to think through when buying this technology.