How Carrier Self-Service Appointments Streamline Your Yard Operations

Written by: 
YardView
Posted on: 
June 2, 2022

Image of trailer on appointment in operations yard

When managing your yard logistics, one of the main, if not the most important, priorities is to identify ways that will streamline your operations. Through carrier self-service appointments, automated scheduling solutions are implemented that avoid congestion in the yard, ensuring an even flow of arriving drivers. In this specific article, it’s all about utilizing self-service carrier appointments and learning how they automate your entire process, boost efficiency for all staff and management involved, optimizes productivity, minimizes congestion, and saves you unneeded expenditures in the long-run.

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How Carrier Self-Service Appointments Can Help Streamline Your Yard Operations

When a carrier self-service appointment is integrated with your yard management system, it prevents carriers from arriving whenever they want, thus reducing the likelihood of causing issues at the gate and in the yard. When automated, the need for a clerk is no longer required to answer calls, coordinate appointments, and confirm arrivals. This innovative solution both streamlines your operations and produces a positive impact on warehouse throughput.


Self-Service Appointments Save the Clerk Time & Saves You Money

When there is no longer a need for a clerk to remain in charge of carrier appointments, this allows the clerk to focus on higher priorities within the yard. Instead of spending unnecessary time and money on a clerk to answer phone calls and coordinate arrivals, a vast amount of time and resources are available to be allocated across pressing matters that require undivided attention.

Carriers Can Pick a Date and Time That Works for Them

Carriers enjoy the freedom of selecting arrival times that work best for their schedule. When using a carrier self-service appointment system within your YMS solution, you will have real-time visibility of who is arriving and when, providing ample time to plan for the arrival of a particular carrier. Having this accessibility at the touch of your yard’s fingertips, it helps optimize the arrangement of the arrival including docking, loading/unloading, and carrier shipment departures. If you’re still sticking with a manual scheduling process, utilizing this automated system benefits the carrier’s operations due to minimizing the amount of time spent waiting idle at the gate, reducing the amount of money spent on fuel, and increasing flexibility when scheduling appointments themselves.

Avoids Congestion & Increases Throughput Capacity

When carriers have the flexibility and autonomy to book and confirm appointments themselves, they will have the exact date and time of arrival at the touch of a button. Better yet, carriers will not be able to select a date and time that has already been confirmed to prevent congestion inside and outside of the yard as well as a long waiting line at the gate. By having this system in place, your throughput capacity will increase drastically as a result of accurately automating the scheduling process and ensuring a smooth end-to-end operation.

Yard Management Systems Were Designed to Streamline Operations

Image of trucks in operations yard

After serving the logistics industry for more than 20 years, YardView has been a testament to delivering a commitment to what they do well—providing the best-of-the-breed, easy to use, affordable Yard Management software. YMS was created to help you do your job at the best level possible by streamlining operations that involve the yard’s supply chain process. YardView’s yard management solution provides all of the best standard functionality on the market today, including improving gate throughput accuracy and capacity, improving security through gate management, dock management, yard driver management, automated carrier scheduling, load management, systems integration, carrier and customer interfaces, and many more. Best of all, it is customized to fit your operation and requirements. We understand the daily challenges you face, so we crafted a yard management solution that solves real yard problems after learning the business, inside and out.