Yard management

An important, often-overlooked aspect of managing a distribution facility is yard

management, which is the process of tracking the trailers in your parking lot. It

can be easy to forget about inventory when it is hidden inside a trailer. Yard man-

agement starts with understanding the two approaches that are used to deliver

and pick up your freight:

» Live load and unload: A carrier shows up, unloads your freight from its

trailer, and then leaves. Another carrier backs up to your loading dock, puts

your cargo on its trailer, and carries it away.

The good part of live loading and unloading is that it keeps your freight

moving. The bad part is that the truck has to sit and wait while it’s being

loaded. If your loading dock is slow or busy, the truck may charge you

detention fees.

» Drop and hook: With drop and hook, when a truck arrives at the destination,

it drops off the trailer and leaves. Or. you can pre-load another trailer and

have it ready for the truck to hook up and haul away.

Drop and hook is much faster for the truck than live load and unload, and it

can be a better choice for making the supply chain run smoothly. But when

you’re using a drop-and-hook system, you have inventory sitting on trailers in

your yard.


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