Yard Operations

Design, Storage space assignment,

MHE assignment and routing,
reshuffling,
 Need for Efficient Yard Management
• A Terminal requires an expanse of flat land for temporary container storage. If a broad expanse of land
is available, then it may be possible to stow individual containers on wheeled chassis;
• On chassis storage, the container remains on the over the road truck chassis and is not removed from
the chassis until it is loaded on the ship, chassis may be used as a buffer instead of stacking in yard.
• if the land area is small, it may be necessary to stack the containers, two, three, or more high.
• The movement of containers in a yard requires very different equipment for a chassis operation than for
a grounded or stacked arrangement, and the efficiency of this part of the operation reflects these
differences. Ideally, the larger the land available, the easier it is to provide efficient land operations
within the terminal. On the other hand, if the shape of the land is something other than rectangular
then this geometry may adversely affect the yard performance.
• Since the land scarcity increases as the Container throughput increases, Yard planning plays important
role in the efficiency of the Terminal.
• Yards receive containers from inland over the road by trailers and by rail. Rail Yard also requires land.
• Roads space required from Railway yard for shifting to Yard stack or to terminal for loading.
• Yards can use different types of Storage methods depending upon the land availability and type of Yard
Equipment.
• YARD MANAGEMENT IS THE FLOW OF INFORMATION INTO AND WITHIN THE TERMINAL, TERMINAL
INTERCHANGE INFORMATION

•
 Terminal Information System (TOS )
At any container terminal Information on where to place containers and/or
chassis arriving at the terminal and where to find containers and/or chassis
leaving the terminal.
Requirements on the TIS is to keep track of
 Collecting Interchange data
 Terminal yard Information
 where units are located and not located,(a unique coordinate or location)
on the terminal for each unit,
 It must provide information about the relevant variables to be used in the
yard management decisions --their ship line, if they are export or import,
and if they are in special storage locations refrigerated/hazardous cargo.
 Real time information about movement of container and being on-line to
query for information as and when asked for.
 Yard Design Function & Structure

The following factors are important.

• The stack area available.
• No. of Shipping lines served and NVOCC’s served
• The stack planning.
• Hinterland connectivity for movement of containers from & to the yard.
• Transfer distance between yard & wharf. The operation is similar in all
terminals due to the use of Rubber Tyred Gantry (RTG) in the stackyard
and the use of the tractors and trailers to transfer the containers between
the stackyard and the wharf.
• Extent of use of IT for yard management.
• Skill of the crane and other equipment operator.
• THE TERMINAL OPERATING SYSTEM (TOS) IS USED TO ASSIST IN STOWAGE
PLANNING AND MONITORING
 Yard Storage Planning & Process Flow
• Yard handles loading/discharging of containers from trailers, staging of containers in yard,
gate ops for in/out containers equipment management, billing for various services
rendered , container lifting/shifting and reefer monitoring.
• As containers are continually rearranged into the terminal's stacking areas, the question is
how to do this to minimize movements of straddle carriers and top lifters and increase
throughput.
• Yard Planning requires information --for stack reservation for certain voyage/agent, auto
stack position calculation, stack enquiry and up date progress, equipment allocation
system for assignment of rolling equipment with Container stacking details, inventory
and gate operations,
• Yard control produces yard definition and then breaks stacks into smaller blocks as per
yard code. The codes are for the import/export container, foodstuffs, dangerous goods,
per voyage, per destination.
• Yard operations – Stevedoring, cranes and prime movers for proper Stacking / Shifting of
Containers for smooth vessel loading / discharging,. Ensure proper Stacking of Containers
according to Port of Destination, Weight Wise, type of container and if IMO class.
• Feeding of containers according to sequence of the bay plan on the ship
• Yard Inventory -- Planning Department will provide the Line with weekly Yard Inventory
Reports for all laden and empty containers.
 Responsiveness in Operation

• In the stack the TOS will have location information (expressed in three
dimensions) – Row, location in the row, and the height. Any one of the
dimensions entered wrongly cause problems, although the proper row is
most critical.
• Regardless of the storage mode, information on the storage location must
be matched with the container and placed in container database.
• Information available to the Yard Managers and Asst. Managers to allow
them to organize further storage and staging. For a container to be
staged, its information must be matched with the requirements of an
arriving ship. Whenever possible. Staging is done in conformity to
stowage plan of ship so that loading can proceed without being
interrupted by the need to search the chassis to be loaded next.
• Finally, those responsible for loading the ship must record the container
has, in fact, been loaded in a specific location
 Responsiveness in Receipt and delivery Operation

Receipt and Delivery operation

• The receipt of containers at the yard, which are meant for export and
delivery of the import containers from the yard is performed at the yard.
The number of yard gantry crane earmarked exclusively to perform this
operation depends on the volume of containers handled at the yard and
the interface between this operation and yard transfer operation
described earlier. For uninterrupted operation, it is necessary that yard
gantry cranes of adequate number are deployed to achieve quicker
turnaround of the trucks calling at the yard to deliver or to collect the
container. A turnaround time of 15 to 30 minutes from the time a truck
enters the IN gate and leaves the OUT gate is achieved by international
terminals.
 Responsiveness in Railway yard Operation

• Advance Information from Rail and Ship may not be timely available and
container may arrive prior arrival of documents. Many times containers
arrive with no indication of their voyage, Shipping line and destination.
Information will be eventually available but lack of timeliness creates
confusion
• Terminals with a significant number of containers leaving by rail are an
important exception to the statement that import containers' departure
are primarily the recipient's responsibility. From the terminal's point of
view, containers leaving on a unit train are similar to export containers
leaving by ship. A large group of containers leave at once, and the terminal
is responsible for assuring both that the correct containers are loaded and
that they are loaded on the proper rail wagons.
 Future Improvements

• The industry has been addressing this problem by seeking to build

connecting links between the terminal MIS and those of the ship lines and
such inland carriers as rail¬roads. Cargo information could be transmitted,
exchanged, and confirmed 24 hours a day, if a suitable communications
link among the computers were available. There are many difficulties in
developing and installing such a comprehensive system. Protocols must be
established among a large number of participants and often other projects
are in place or in progress, such as an automated link with the customs
service, which may use protocols unsuitable for such a comprehensive
system. Further complications arise when protocols must be established
among participants in different countries.
 Electronic Data Interchange
The Line is responsible for communicating the container discharge, re-stow and container remain-
on-board instructions to the CT planning Department
The Bay-plan of the arriving vessel is to be sent via EDI message (BAPLIE).
The discharge list is to be provided to CT Planning Department by EDI (COPRAR) discharge
information required is as follows:
• Vessel / Voyage, Container ID, Container Operator, Equipment Size/Type, Container Gross
Weight, Status (Full / Empty)
• Next Vessel / Voyage and POD for Transhipment Cargo, POD
• Hazardous Cargo Details (IMO Class, UN Nos.)
• Reefer Set Temperature
• OOG Measurements
• Special Requirements for Yard Stowage
• Additional information required as follows:
• Total Container Discharge (Recap)
• Re-stow List, including current and future stowage positions
• Hazardous Cargo Manifest
• Reefer Manifest
• Out of Gauge Manifest
• Complete details of any Break Bulk Cargo (see Section E)
 Electronic Data Interchange
Load Operation

A vessel loading pre-plan in MOVINS file format will be forwarded to the CT Planning Dept.
COPRAR LOAD information required as follows:
• Vessel / Voyage
• Container ID
• Container Operator
• Equipment type / size
• Container Gross Weight
• Status (full / empty)
• POD
• Hazardous Cargo Details (IMO Class, UN Nos.)
• Reefer Set Temperature
• OOG Measurements
• Special Stowage Requirements
• Mode of Transport (Arrival)
• Additional information required as follows:
• Total Container Load per POD (Recap)
• Out of Gauge Manifest
• Hazardous Cargo Manifest
• Reefer Manifest
• Complete details of any Break Bulk Cargo (see Section E)
 Advantages of EDI
EDI FOR CONTAINER TERMINALS
• Integrated electronic data interchange (EDI) is a powerful way of business
communicating and the benefits of integrating EDI are significant:
• elimination of re-keying and data duplication
• reduction of errors
• reduced data interchange cycle time
• improved service and response time
• reduced business transaction costs
• improved productivity, possibility of staff re-assignments
• Furthermore a direct connection between systems eliminates the risk of human
failures, and as a significant electronic commerce technology, EDI is changing the
way business is done and defining successful customer-vendor relationships.

Terminals and other vendors a variety of different technologies and formats, when it
comes to business-to-business communication like EDI using EDIFACT standards, CSV
and XML.
 Indian Ports Association
• Port Community System (PCS) is intended to integrate the electronic flow of trade
related document/information and function as the centralized hub for the ports of
India and other stakeholders like Shipping Lines/Agents, Surveyors, Stevedores,
Banks, Container Freight Stations, Customs House agents, Importers, Exporters,
Railways/CONCOR, Government regulatory agencies, etc. for exchanging electronic
messages in secure manner.

The main objectives of the PCS are :

• Develop a centralized web-based application, which act as SINGLE WINDOW, for
the port community members/stakeholders to exchange messages
• electronically in secure fashion.
• Reduce transaction time & cost in port business
• Achieve paperless regime in port sector
• Implement an e-commerce portal for port community