News

Those who oversee shipper yards continue to be weighed down by traditional manual processes that affect everything from detention times to throughput. The observation emerges in the State of Yard Management: Industry Report 2021, conducted by FourKites and collecting responses from 375 supply chain professionals in the CPG (consumer packaged goods), food and beverage, retail, and manufacturing sectors. More than half of those surveyed said manual processes were their biggest challenges when it comes to managing yards and appointments. After manual processes, 21% said locating equipment was the biggest challenge, while 15% cited excessive operational costs. Just over 20% said poor dock door utilization was the biggest challenge when it came to managing appointments. “Across all industries, manual processes and locating equipment in the yard were the top two pain points, followed by overtime costs. Higher labor costs were a bigger concern for respondents from the manufacturing industry, likely because those yards are among the most complex and tend to involve more manual processes. Retail yards also tend to suffer from higher costs due to the volume of shipments handled manually,” the study concludes. Challenges linked to inefficiencies include time wasted locating equipment, and higher labor and operational costs, FourKites adds. “Companies need real-time visibility into every mile of a product’s journey,” said FourKites founder and CEO Matt Elenjickal. “Yard management systems, integrated with real-time in-transit visibility platforms and other key systems, can help facility managers optimize the yard — reducing dwell times and increasing operating margins in the process — and track a product from point of origin to destination.”