Project44’s Yard Solutions supports smart loading and unloading

Supply chain visibility platform Project44 has launched Yard Solutions, a comprehensive set of dock, yard and asset capabilities. Yard Solutions consists of three components: Slot Booking, Yard Visibility and Yard Management. Unlike traditional yard solutions – which are often hampered by legacy technology and difficult to integrate into the broader supply chain ecosystem – Project44’s solution provides real-time location tracking and uses IoT automation to improve yard efficiency.

“Moving goods efficiently and with discrete visibility through yards can be a challenge,” states Kiruba Raja, General Manager of Yard Solutions at Project44. “Yard Solutions helps shippers and logistics service providers to reduce time in overall gate management workflows, lower costs spent on yard equipment and optimize processes in the warehouse, such as load prioritization and dock door assignments.”

Operational efficiency

Powered by Project44’s real-time tracking and predictive ETAs, the three new Yard Solutions offerings help facility and operations managers by enabling self-service for carrier arrival and departure processes. They also improve operational efficiency within the facility by configuring tasks and automating the trailer loading and unloading process with loading dock management. In addition, yard operations are streamlined by coordinating the tasks and collaboration of dock workers and drivers.

Another benefit of Yard Solutions is the ability to improve forecasting and planning processes. This is possible by using predictive estimated times of arrival (ETAs) with real-time updates on trailer status to ensure optimal utilization of dock doors and facility staff. In addition, comprehensive data can be used to run reports and advanced analytics on one or more yards to gain insight into the number of appointments per day, the number of trailers arriving, driver wait times and more.

Smarter transport decisions

Yard Solutions integrates directly with Project44’s other first, middle and last-mile offerings. When connected with other Project44 solutions, it also enables customers to make smarter transportation decisions. “Adding slot booking, yard visibility and yard management capabilities to our market-leading supply chain visibility platform provides our customers with even greater end-to-end real-time tracking of their goods. By enhancing the fulfilment process and improving yard efficiency, those organizations can deliver an optimal customer experience from start to finish,” says Vernon O’Donnell, Chief Product Officer of Project44.