Yard Management Systems utilise smartphone apps
Contributed by Diana Rabanal
As the continuous progress of smartphone technology grows and becomes more mainstream in business applications, it is important to be on top of the newest developments and be up-to-date on what technology your competition is using.
Perhaps no other segment of the U.S. workforce is more reliant on mobile technology than today’s 3.2 million over-the-road truckers. In fact, a survey of transporters confirmed truckers’ growing dependence on mobile phones, apps and wireless services, as nearly 6 in 10 truckers were conducting more of their business through mobile phones last year when compared to 2010, according to data from the popular logistics app, uShip.
SEE RELATED STORIES FROM THE WDM CONTENT NETWORK:
- First Chinese ship has crossed the Arctic
- Union Pacific Railroad investing $20 million into CO² reductions
- Aircraft manufacturers join forces to research biofuel
Although we assume that transport and logistics today have evolved into a high-technology industry, there are still a great number of facilities that conduct yard operations manually. Distribution is no longer about moving cargo over road, water or via air from point A to point B. It is now a complex process based on intelligent systems for sorting, planning, routing, and consolidating that supports faster transportation, different transportation modes, fallback scenarios in case of failures, added value services such as time sensitive deliveries, and tracing of assets throughout the supply chain or transport network-all of which can be easily managed by applications installed on an Android smartphone.
A perfect example of this is proven by Exotrac, a company dedicated to offering a high quality product line of innovative Yard Management System (YMS). Exotrac’s newest advancement, YardTrac lite, which is based on Android, combines cutting edge, cloud-based technologies with a turn-key, on-demand software provided as a service (SAAS) and offers cost effective solutions to bring, real-time, current information.
Exotrac’s COO, Jon Donchey, explained, “As the continuous progress of Android technology grows and becomes more mainstream in business applications, Exotrac is utilizing specific adaptations for market driven needs and wants for businesses that aren’t large enough yet for a major roll-out but still desire a cost effective system of accountability.”
One recent convert to the Yardtrac system is Mesko Spotting Services Inc, which has done away with Nextel phones and its IDEN network and switched over to Android phones to operate Exotrac’s Yard Management System. Mesko has seen an immediate difference by getting rid of outdated walkie-talkies, and reports that the switch to Android technology definitely saves time and increases accuracy. Now yard jockeys have the ability to schedule, perform and record several trailer moves with the press of a button. Even more, smartphones are a more cost-effective hardware to purchase, making it a lower cost solution.
For more Supply Chain News, Follow @WDMEllaCopeland
