The State of Yard Management: Industry Report 2021

The Last Frontier in Shipment Visibility

Spurred by recent disruptions, many organizations are accelerating technology adoption to optimize their end-to-end supply chains.

Visibility into in-transit freight tracking has improved considerably in recent years, as companies understand the critical importance of knowing where their freight is at any given time.

And once that freight reaches the warehouse or distribution center, the warehouse management system takes over.

However, there’s a visibility gap that creates a black hole in many supply chains: the yard.

Companies are now realizing that they need better last-mile visibility into inbound loads to manage the flow of traffic for manufacturing and distribution sites.

Disruptions such as COVID-19 have exacerbated the challenges of managing congested yards, highlighting notorious inefficiencies of manual operations.

Still heavily reliant on manual operations, the information yards rely on is slow, siloed from other systems, and therefore often unreliable.

And while some companies may use an appointment management solution that’s part of their warehouse management system (WMS), it doesn’t provide real-time updates for loads in transit.

Those updates are handled manually, leading to delays, confusion, and a significant drain on resources.

Survey of 375 Supply Chain Professionals

In a recent survey of 375 supply chain professionals at Fortune 500 companies, FourKites found that 92% of respondents believe a yard management system (YMS) and an automated appointment management system could add value to their organization.

However, only 25% of respondents are currently using a YMS, and less than half are using an automated appointment management solution.

Download "The State of Yard Management: Industry Report 2021" and find out; Why the gap? What do the 25% YMS users know that others don’t?