Gates have the potential to be bottlenecks at yards. When trailers back up into overflow lots, the possibility of demurrage and detention charges increases. Eliminating paper log-ins and log-outs can reduce time spent at the gate by as much as 70%. With Yard Hound a paper process that takes two minutes can be reduced to approximately 30 seconds, eliminating backups at peak traffic periods. Yard Hound also has the ability to deploy "fast track" lanes. When a trailer passes an RFID reader attached to a yard gate, all asset information is read and updated in the Yard Hound database.

Once a trailer’s RFID tag is read at a gate, its presence is confirmed as being in the yard. Because a trailer’s presence is updated in Yard Hound in real-time, dock schedules can be adjusted to accommodate actual trailer flow. Real-time presence enables dock and warehouse managers to control live traffic, in addition to scheduled traffic, and thereby reduce idle time on docks and in warehouses. Productivity gains can be substantial as warehouse and dock workers near full capacity.

PINC Yard Hound provides managers with a level of data accuracy about yard activities that exceeds any static yard management software platform available. Accurate yard activity and trailer data is fundamental to increasing productivity and reducing costs in the yard. Yard Hound’s extensive visibility into yard truck operations allows managers to improve operational efficiency by tracking move time, drive time, idle time, and off time. In addition, Yard Hound provides cumulative records of moves performed, as well as total distances and hours driven for each driver. By reducing drive and search times, and distances, managers can reduce yard truck and driver overhead.

Trailer move capacity is the maximum number of trailer moves that can be completed in one hour in a yard (the average of all driver moves per hour). Increasing move capacity results in reduced demurrage and detention charges, reduction or elimination of overflow lots, reduction in driver and truck overhead, and improvement in the number of spot moves per paid hour.
With its wireless-enabled data communication terminal in the yard truck, Yard Hound eliminates radios and driver paperwork. All move communications are electronically transmitted to the driver and confirmed upon completion with the touch of a finger. The driver is then immediately available for another move. Yard Hound can reduce communication time between driver and dispatcher by as much as 95 percent. Search time for trailers can also be reduced by as much as 80 percent. Because Yard Hound continually updates trailer location information, drivers do not have to search for trailers. They simply go to the spot communicated by the dispatcher.

Depending on the size and activity of a yard, 4 to 10 manual yard checks may be conducted each day. This is a slow, labor intensive process requiring manual data entry, typically on paper. On average, a yard with 100 trailers that conducts 6 yard checks per day will require 5-person hours per day at a cost of about $60,000 per year. Because of Yard Hound’s real-time, continuous updating of vehicle location information, manual yard checks are no longer required and paper updating is eliminated.

Trailer utilization is often a function of the economic cycle. Carrying excess trailer inventory results in storage and maintenance costs that are not recovered. With Yard Hound, a yard manager has the ability to analyze which trailers are being utilized over time and which trailers are not. Trailer inventory can then be reduced and the associated costs eliminated.

Just as in a warehouse, lost loads in the yard can result in thousands of dollars of lost revenue or liability damages. The evidence is anecdotal, but it is estimated that up to 300 trailers are lost in yards each year. The primary cause of these losses is the nature of non-automated yard management systems: they are prone to human error. With automated, real-time trailer tracking and reporting, the potential of a loss is greatly reduced because human error is largely absent from the system.

As in the warehouse, on time performance is critical to avoiding losses. Yard Hound’s appointment and scheduling tools allow a manager to avoid and/or manage detention and demurrage charges, reduce administrative overhead, and improve communications throughout the scheduling process.

Appointment scheduler – enabling shipper customers to manage gate/dock appointment online, and allowing their carrier partners to self manage appointments through their web portals. Benefits include increased gate throughput while reduced admin overhead required, and improved detention/demurrage management.