Yard management is a key link in the broader supply chain, tasked with overseeing the flow of vehicles and trailers into and out of warehouses and manufacturing facilities. And those truck trips are ferrying parts, products, equipment, and supplies that keep operations up and running.
Because this flow is so critical, companies need to make every effort to ensure that yard management is handled as efficiently as possible. This is where gate automation comes in: tapping innovative technology to streamline facility access and prevent choke points that can ripple upstream and downstream.
Gate automation helps improve both the security and efficiency of warehouse and manufacturing facilities. Most directly, this impacts the performance of yard management — i.e., everything that happens between the gate and the loading docks.
The Role of Yard Management in Logistics
The function of yard management includes the tracking, scheduling, and movement of trucks and trailers within a yard. Once a truck has passed through the entrance gate, the driver is either directed immediately to a dock for unloading or loading or to a slot within the yard to drop their trailer.
Smooth yard operations are crucial to any facility, as the timely loading and unloading of trailers reduces bottlenecks that can delay transportation and production schedules. Manual gate operations, involving paperwork and physical check-ins with personnel, can be a contributor to backups and delays.
What is Gate Automation?
Gate automation involves the use of various kinds of technology (RFID, automated number plate recognition or ANPR, GPS, vision systems) to control gate access. RFID, ANPR, IoT and GPS have been in use for gate automation since the early 2000s. AI-powered yard vision systems that employ real-time data feeds from security cameras are a newer development, in use for the past five years or so. Each of these gate access systems have built-in software for tracking, data analytics and reporting.
Different Types of Gate Automation Technology
RFID has been a reliable technology for decades for communicating data between systems via antennas and receiver devices. For gate access control, however, there are limitations. Passive RFID tags have to be placed on third-party vehicles — representing about 70%-75% of truck traffic — then removed when they exit the facility, a cumbersome time-consuming process. Also, tags are often lost or fail to function, causing gaps in data transmission.
ANPR is effective in capturing license plate numbers for vehicle identification and automating gate access. However, its use is limited to the gate, and there are many other identifying factors on a truck and trailer besides the license plate that ANPR cannot capture.
GPS can be used to support gate access control, but it typically does not fully automate the process on its own. Instead, GPS is often integrated with a yard management system (YMS) to enhance visibility and coordinate access. It’s often combined with geofencing and activated when a vehicle approaches the gate.
Yard vision systems use artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze real-time data from security camera feeds to fully automate gate access control. Unlike ANPR, It can also be used to automate key aspects of yard operations (dock scheduling, yard audits, asset location and utilization, personnel deployment, etc.). And unlike RFID, it’s an asset-independent, hardware-free solution.
Enhanced Security Through Gate Automation
Automating gate access significantly enhances security by quickly and accurately identifying trucks, trailers, and personnel entering or exiting a facility. The system verifies vehicles and drivers, ensuring that only authorized trucks and personnel gain access. This eliminates manual errors in logging vehicle details, which often leads to discrepancies or delays.
Automated barriers, coupled with identification systems, immediately prevent access by unauthorized vehicles and create an added layer of security. Security teams are alerted when irregularities are detected so they can take swift action to prevent a potential breach.
Many gate automation systems also integrate with security cameras, providing 24/7 monitoring of all vehicle traffic. AI-powered systems can detect suspicious activity or attempts at forced entry. Automated alerts ensure that any irregularities are reported instantly. Reducing human involvement in gate access control minimizes the risk of security lapses caused by fatigue, distraction, or miscommunication. Automation ensures consistent, reliable security while allowing personnel to focus on higher-level threats or tasks.
Improving Efficiency in the Yard
Gate automation also significantly improves the efficiency of yard operations. By eliminating the need for manual check-ins and paperwork, dwell time is reduced, ensuring a smoother traffic flow into the yard.
Integrating automated gate access control with a YMS allows prioritization of vehicle entry based on delivery or pickup schedules. For example, trucks carrying high-priority shipments can be given immediate access, while others are queued according to yard capacity and unloading schedules. This type of dynamic gate management, synced with operational plans and yard capacity, helps optimize yard space and asset utilization and reduces congestion.
Automated gate systems also enable real-time updates on vital information such as vehicle location, time spent in the yard, and estimated exit times. This enables better forecasting and decision-making about yard capacity, preventing overcrowding or underutilization. As vehicles move through the facility, tracking and forecasting capabilities allow yard managers to ensure that each asset is being processed efficiently.
This sync between gate automation and YMS enables real-time updates that impact yard operations. For instance, vehicle tracking data can be used to update schedules for loading and unloading, helping to optimize queuing and preventing costly delays. Automated alerts can notify warehouse managers of approaching trucks, so they can prepare for loading or unloading in advance and minimize downtime between arrivals.
By tracking trailers and containers, gate automation ensures that the correct assets are moved in and out of the yard as planned. From there, a YMS equipped with AI-powered vision technology displays available docks and parking spots in real time, so drivers can quickly navigate to their destination. This increased level of efficiency helps optimize yard operations, saving time and money.
The Benefits of Gate Automation
To summarize what we’ve presented thus far, here are some of the main benefits of implementing gate automation technology for warehouse and manufacturing facilities:
Reduced wait times: Automating gate access control means faster vehicle movements, higher throughput, and reduced wait times, contributing to yard space optimization and increased productivity.
Fewer emissions: As queues are reduced and dwell time cut back, there is significantly less emission from idling trucks. This is especially important in places like California where new regulations put the onus of carbon reduction on facility operators, even for third-party fleets.
Lower labor costs: Automation of gate processes means less reliance on personnel, saving on labor costs.
Scalable operations: Automated gate systems can easily scale up to accommodate higher volumes as demand increases.
Common Concerns About Gate Automation
While there are many benefits to automating gate access control, companies understandably will have questions or concerns about its implementation. These include:
- Up-front investment in technology: Any capital outlay has to undergo rigorous scrutiny by management and finance teams to determine its value and what kind of return on investment to expect. While there’s much to gain from gate automation, your provider should be able to lay out a clear-cut ROI case (KPIs covering increased efficiency, productivity, cost savings, etc.).
- Staffing, training, and adoption: How much training is involved? How intuitive and user friendly is the system? Will there be concerns over job loss? How much reassignment to other roles? All this has to be addressed.
- System integration: How quickly and easily can the system be integrated with YMS, TMS, WMS, etc.? Is it done via API plug-ins? How much is needed in terms of IT resources?
- Reliability: What kind of risk of downtime is there? What kind of backups will be needed?
The Future of Gate Automation in Yard Management
The future will be shaped by advances in AI, machine learning, and IoT. AI-powered predictive analytics will lead to improved scheduling by analyzing traffic patterns, delivery schedules, and yard capacity to anticipate vehicle arrivals. This will result in further reductions in wait times and increased throughput.
With more sophisticated vehicle tracking through AI and IoT-enabled devices, errors in vehicle identification and access will be reduced to near-zero levels, increasing security and accuracy. This will enable smarter, more responsive gate systems that can dynamically adjust to current yard conditions and traffic flows.
As more companies adopt gate automation technology, the result will be significant reductions in dwell times and thus engine emissions. This will help them meet sustainability goals while improving efficiency.
Gate Access Has Gotten An AI Upgrade
Given the complex logistics of yard management, and the demands put on teams to maintain efficient traffic flow, automating gate access control is a logical step. The investment will pay dividends in terms of increased throughput, security, greater efficiency, accuracy, and enhanced visibility into asset location and movement.
While there are different flavors of technology used to automate gate operations, AI-based yard vision technology is the only solution that offers real-time visibility throughout the yard and full gate automation without the use of hardware. Importantly, it augments rather than replaces YMS by extending its capabilities, a fact being recognized by leading providers.
EAIGLE, a leader in developing cutting-edge yard vision technology, marries the power of AI and predictive analytics with real-time location data to truly revolutionize yard logistics. Its AVAC™ (Automated Vehicle Access Control) solution takes in more than two dozen data elements from camera feeds to instantly register and validate incoming trucks and trailers. This ensures that only authorized vehicles are promptly granted entry and exit, improving both security and traffic flow.
EAIGLE’S YardSight™ technology similarly uses AI to analyze data from camera feeds, instantly identifying available docks and parking spots. Arriving drivers can quickly navigate to their destination, speeding up loading/unloading and improving efficiency. Its real-time data capture eliminates the need for labor-intensive, inefficient manual yard audits.
To learn more about how EAIGLE can transform your yard operations and drive measurable performance gains, request a demo today.