Ocean shipping is the primary mode of transport for global trade. Almost 90% of goods are transported by sea. Container imports increased in 2021, putting added strain on yards, ports, and terminals worldwide. The number of containers piling up in ports has caused supply chain disruptions such as yard congestion, cargo delivery delays, and additional surcharges such as demurrage and detention fees, among other things. One way to deal with the increased burden on the yard, warehouse, and port operations is to implement a shorter truck turnaround or “turn time.”
Trucks are an important part of logistics and can significantly affect a facility’s efficiency. Truck availability and turnaround time are critical components of the logistics chain and have a significant impact on operational efficiency. As more logistics companies demand on-time freight deliveries, attention shifts to truck turnaround time and its considerable impact on the entire supply chain.
Consequently, cargo companies are looking for ways to improve intermodal operational efficiency, as increased truck turn time directly affects all supply chain constituents such as shippers, shipping companies, drayage yards, warehouses, distribution centers, port terminal operators, and ultimately, the vendors and customers that participate in the supply chain.
Increased truck and cargo cycling lead to congestion across all facilities in addition to rendering yard and warehousing operations unmanageable. Intermodal containers, chassis, and trailers are either lost in the stacks or trucks have exceptionally little room in yards, making mobility difficult. Truck drivers also have difficulty locating containers because one poorly dropped container can obstruct the access of other containers, resulting in costly delays. All these events exacerbate existing issues, such as traffic flow disruption, increased logistics costs, and increased freight, demurrage, and detention charges, resulting in a bottleneck situation for most operations. Thus, the truck turnaround time increases, reducing yard efficiency.
As a result, to increase the productivity of the entire logistics chain, yard and port logistics turnaround times must be reduced. The time spent by the truck driver during the pickup and delivery phases is an important key performance indicator. If the turnaround time is short, this increases the efficiency of yard operations. A shorter turnaround time allows for faster container warehousing, facilitates truck movement in the yards, saves an organization’s money and resources, maintains customer satisfaction, and reduces the risks of bottleneck situations at the inland port and container yards.
It is possible to conclude that trucks are the primary movers of supply chain operations, allowing for greater asset utilization in intermodal operations. Computerized intermodal container tracking, automated stock updates, and scheduled container warehousing are critical in reducing truck driver time wasted in ports.
How does SiteTrax facilitate faster truck turnaround?
SiteTrax powered artificial intelligence (AI) by Netarus recognizes the importance of quickly improving truck turn time and provides a revolutionary cost-effective solution that is as easy as pressing a button. The ground-breaking technology captures asset IDs from intermodal containers and chassis, as well as their location, and delivers this data to any database, enterprise ledger, ERP, or transportation management system.
SiteTrax is a simple and convenient solution for capturing a container’s geolocation, resulting in more efficient and well-organized yard operations. Using a virtual mobile device, the SiteTrax OCR (optical character recognition) application can catch inventory and assets in real-time and store all relevant details such as ID, time, date, and location. SiteTrax’s innovative AI and object detection technology immediately solves yard operational issues and reduces truck driver time in yards and has been used as a simple automation tool to help port authorities plan ahead of time and reduce truck turn time.
Accordingly, the incorporation of SiteTrax technology improves 3PLs’ ability to locate their assets quickly. This eventually allows SiteTrax to reduce truck turnaround time as drivers locate a container in about 10 minutes, a significant reduction from the previous 45–60-minute search time. The accurate geo-location and real-time tracking provided by SiteTrax ensures uninterrupted truck movement, avoids yard congestion or bottleneck situations, and reduces demurrage and detention costs due to increased intermodal logistics throughput.
To put it succinctly, SiteTrax technology ensures that containers are no longer clogged in ports by reducing freight obstacles so that truck drivers can easily locate assets, thereby streamlining warehousing operations. Hence, SiteTrax promotes shorter truck turnaround times, prioritizes continuous freight movement, mitigates additional surcharges and demurrage fees, improves warehouse operations, and increases yard productivity.
If you would like to learn more about how SiteTrax can help your company, click here to schedule a quick demo.
