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PRIORITY PARAMETERS: Solutions from vendors such as C3 help companies reduce empty miles in the yard, optimize trailer moves and direct trailers to the right door.

On the outbound, Yard Smart helps expedite timely shipments. “If we know we have certain cutoff times we need to respect, we can schedule Yard Smart to have tasks done at specific times,” Robert explains. For instance, if a load must leave every day at 4 a.m., operators request the system to have a trailer at the door by 2 a.m. “The system will meet the requirements based on the priorities we establish. So if there is no trailer at the door by 3 a.m., an alert will let you know that you need to do something to meet the 4 a.m. departure.”

The efficiencies realized with Yard Smart have allowed the company to eliminate two of its eight yard trucks. “That is a 25-percent reduction,” notes Robert. “We are saving significantly because each of those trucks cost $100,000, added to a $50,000 salary for the operators.”

Now, with six yard trucks operating, Robert Transport is able to complete more yard tasks, it reduced wait time for shunts, and it reduced empty miles in the yard.

KRAFT FINDS SOLUTION TO ELIMINATE TRAILER TRACKING

Up until 2006, Kraft Foods had been managing manually 12 yards supporting six distribution campuses. This meant yard personnel were using clipboards and spreadsheets to track trailers, roaming the yard to spot trailers and hand-record trailer locations.

“Our team was searching for an optimal solution to eliminate these manual and time-consuming trailer tracking and yard checks,” reports Kelly Rae, associate director, route to market for the Northfield, IL-based manufacturer. “The key driver in choosing a YMS was to gain visibility and efficiencies within the yard. We had no real-time visibility to help our transportation operations center and we believed there were opportunities for efficiencies.”

In 2006, Kraft chose to pilot a product from PINC Solutions Inc., Berkeley, CA. PINC’s Yard Hound with real-time location system (RTLS) technology that informs trailer parking positions, yard truck locations, and gate activities via a graphical user interface. Yard Hound’s high-level visibility and low infrastructure requirements was an attractive and affordable combination for Kraft’s yards with its constantly changing flow of trailers and goods, notes Rae.

“We receive real-time information through passive RFID tags that are applied to the trailers and minimal hardware is required to be installed in the yard,” says Rae.

The real value of Yard Hound for Kraft is its ability to increase spotting moves per hour while reducing the amount of jockey tractor equipment, says Rae. “With this new visibility, we can now hone in and understand the peaks and valleys in the yard activities so we can adjust our spotting hours accordingly.” The company was also able to eliminate using overflow lots, due to the efficient management of its yards.