Yard management systems allow manufacturers and distributors to better track assets that are stored and operated outside the four walls of their facilities, and manage the processing of trucks and cargo containers that move in and out of their facilities by providing real-time information on where vehicles and equipment are at any given time.
In recent years, yard management solutions have leveraged active RFID and other real-time location system (RTLS) technology to provide this data. Now, however, companies are able to take advantage of lower-cost passive RFID (sometimes combined with GPS) to provide location data.
"The holy grail of yard management is to have a real-time locating system that provides every positional movement of trucks or trailers," says John Baker, president of Venture Research. "But it has always been very expensive to retrofit the infrastructure to accomplish that. Passive RFID has opened up opportunities for these systems where they otherwise would have been cost-prohibitive."
