Yard Management Is Killing Your Fleet Efficiency (Quietly)

Carriers with zero influence on their customers’ yard management are trying to maximize revenue per trailer with their hands tied behind their backs.

There is only so much capacity a trailer has and only so many places it can travel. You can make sure every deployment runs at full capacity and every mile is productive, but if you don’t know how long a trailer sits inside a yard, no amount of “optimization” will recoup the lost revenue.

And the worst part is that you don’t know your fleet is this inefficient because you’re not tracking your trailers.

Yards are lowering your revenue per trailer one silent day at a time.

What Is Yard Management And How It Inflates Your Fleet’s Inefficiency

Yard management is the coordination of all assets that aren’t on the road traveling, but are outside the warehouse or an equivalent facility.

Effective yard management balances many competing factors. For example, there must be a constant flow of inbound and outbound assets while minimizing idle time, yard labor, and avoiding dock or gate congestion.

Carriers care about the factors related to trailer activity. They include questions like:

• Where is my trailer?
• How long has it been in the yard?
• Is it loaded or empty?

Each question serves a purpose in maximizing revenue per trailer. Carriers that can’t answer them for every trailer are leaving money on the table. When you don’t know where a trailer is at any given time, it’s hard to increase the revenue it generates.

Yard managers are incentivized to reduce idle time with detention costs, but if they constantly optimize for other factors (dock labor, gate throughput, truck mobilization), a trailer could remain idle for 300 days - as Mauser Packaging Solutions discovered.

When a trailer sits idle for 300 days, everybody loses: the carrier loses 300 days of revenue, and the yard manager loses yard space. And with a detention fee of $50 per day, those 300 days cost $15,000.

But if there is no evidence of the exact date of abandonment, those fifteen thousand are… debatable.

Thankfully, there is good news. As a carrier, you can influence inefficient yard management by knowing these answers yourself and informing the yard manager when action is needed.

What Is A Yard Management System For Carriers?

As a carrier, you can’t directly control yard management. But you can influence it.

A yard management system for carriers gives you visibility into the actions (or inactions) that occur once a trailer enters the yard. Yard managers may have their own systems, but those systems aren’t focused on reducing trailer idle time. Your visibility allows you to notify the yard manager about the next action needed to release the trailer.

So maybe it’s more accurate to call it a yard assistant system for carriers?

In any case, the point is simple: you don’t have to rely 100% on the yard to minimize trailer idle time. You can influence decisions or at least negotiate detention fees with evidence.

If you’re still unsure whether installing a yard assistant system in your fleet is worth it, here are three reasons.

3 Reasons To Install A Yard Management System As A Carrier

It’s slightly misleading to call it “yard management” since you’re not managing the yard - but the system gives you the power to influence what happens inside it.

1. Increase loads per month by reducing idle time

Trailers produce revenue only when they’re mobile.

Knowing where each trailer is at all times — especially if it spends too long sitting in a yard - directly improves revenue per trailer. SmartTrailer systems offer Yard Check capabilities that let you perform virtual inventories and even estimate load capacity.

With route breadcrumbs and frequent updates, you can flag idle trailers instantly, even in untraceable customer locations.

2. Increase revenue per trailer by optimizing deployment

Empty trailers don’t generate revenue even when they’re moving.

When you know the exact location of every trailer, you can send customers the closest available assets. That reduces empty miles and increases revenue per deployment.

3. Discuss payment options instead of disputes

If a trailer has been abandoned for 300 days and has accumulated $15,000 in detention fees, you don’t want to debate whether it arrived last week or last year — you want to settle payment options.

And it’s hard to argue with irrefutable evidence: door events, breadcrumbs, interior photos, timestamps, and precise location history.

How Long Till Your Yard Management System Pays Itself Off?

Three things affect the return on investment of a yard management system:

1. The upfront cost

It increases the perceived risk of the investment. Carriers with larger fleets benefit the most from trailer tracking systems - but also pay more upfront.

At SkyBitz, we offer multiple options to protect your cash flow and credit line while still providing cutting-edge technology.

2. The time to install and run

Every day a trailer stays out of commission is a day it could generate revenue. This hidden opportunity cost delays the ROI timeline.

SkyBitz systems install in about 15 minutes and use over-the-air configuration so you can redeploy trailers immediately.

3. Your agility and customer relationships

You track your trailers, get notified when they enter a yard, and immediately see when they sit idle. But how fast do you alert the yard manager? How fast do they act?

The revenue comes only when you act on the insights.

In the supply chain, yard management isn’t the carrier’s responsibility - but it directly affects profitability. With SkyBitz trailer tracking, you gain the visibility and leverage needed to influence decisions inside any yard.