Container yards are massive areas where trucks, trailers and other large haul vehicles lug in containers, deposit them for transfer to other trucks or ships. Similarly they pick up containers offloaded from ships or other trucks. This is of course, not as simple to operate as it sounds. Some container yards easily measure 25 kilometers across having thousands of containers,either to be deposited or awaiting pick-up. Truck drivers are interested in picking up or depositing their containers in the shortest possible time.Even large amounts of staff, radio handsets, access to computer terminals and databases do not make this task easy.
The present system in many yards works like this. A trucker brings in his container, which is to be deposited into the yard. At the gate entrance, he gets a ticket which allows him to enter and deposit his container in an available slot. Most times, he would not be content to merely deposit his cargo and go back empty. To optimize his costs, he is also supposed to pick up another container from the same yard for hauling back. Locating this container, which needs to be picked up in a massive yard, in the middle of the night is not an easy task. First he has to find a parking slot for his truck, unload the container which he has brought in. Then he has to move around trying to locate the container which needs to be picked up, then load it into his truck and move out.Considering that there are at any given time, hundreds of truck drivers doing the same thing, the situation is nothing short of chaotic.
