Yard Management and Trailer Detection AI

Add a real-time visibility layer to every yard with vision AI for yard management and trailer detection. Roboflow reads the gate, yard, and dock cameras you already have, identifies every trailer, container, and tractor, tracks where it is and where it moves, and turns the yard into a live map with a record behind every move, without GPS tags on every asset or a jockey doing yard checks.

Gate and Identification:

• Read trailer numbers, container IDs, chassis IDs, license plates, and carrier logos at the gate with OCR, so check-in is verified against the appointment instead of typed from memory
• Detect seal presence, door state, damage, and reefer unit status at the gate and on the yard, so a problem is found at arrival rather than at the dock
• Classify equipment type, dry van, reefer, flatbed, container on chassis, bobtail, and yard truck, so the yard knows what it has, not just how many

Yard Visibility and Trailer Detection:

• Detect and locate every trailer in every parking slot and dock door from fixed yard cameras, so slot occupancy is what the camera sees rather than what the last move said
• Track trailer moves across the yard and reconcile them against the YMS, so a trailer in the wrong slot, a missed move, or an unrecorded move is flagged as it happens
• Monitor dock door status, trailer at door, doors open, dock plate down, and dwell at door, so loading and unloading progress is visible without a radio call

Dwell, Detention, and Systems Integration:

• Measure dwell per trailer, per slot, and per dock from arrival to departure, so detention disputes carry timestamps and images and demurrage is caught before it accrues
• Flag trailers left over threshold, reefers unplugged, and blocked lanes, and alert the yard team before the next shift inherits the problem
• Push identifications, locations, moves, and states into the YMS, WMS, and TMS through API integration, with a full image record behind every gate event and move

Bring intelligence to every yard today. Stop the mistyped trailer number, the slot the YMS got wrong, and the reefer nobody plugged in from becoming a lost load, a detention bill, and a jockey spending the shift looking for a trailer that was there the whole time.

‍

More About Yard Management and Trailer Detection

What is yard management with Vision AI?

Yard management with vision AI uses gate, yard, and dock cameras and deep-learning models to identify and track every trailer, container, chassis, and tractor on a site: reading trailer numbers, container IDs, plates, and carrier logos at the gate with OCR, detecting seal, door, damage, and reefer status, locating every trailer in every slot and dock door from fixed cameras, tracking moves across the yard, and measuring dwell and detention with timestamps and images. It reconciles what the cameras see against the yard management system, so the YMS reflects reality rather than the last recorded move, and it feeds identifications, locations, and events into the YMS, WMS, and TMS the site already uses. For dock-side load and parcel operations, see parcel sorting computer vision and pallet tracking.

Do we need GPS tags or RFID on every trailer?

No, and that is the main reason yards choose vision. Tags and RFID require hardware on every trailer, which a site does not control for carrier and customer equipment, and they report position without seeing condition, seal, or door state. Fixed cameras covering the gate, the rows, and the dock face identify equipment by what is printed on it, which every trailer already carries, and see the slot it is in, whether the doors are open, and whether the reefer is running. Camera coverage is planned against the yard layout so every slot and door is in view, existing security cameras are often part of the coverage, and models are trained on your yard, your lighting, and the equipment your carriers actually run, so a faded trailer number at night in the rain is training data rather than an exception.

Can Vision AI read trailer numbers and container IDs reliably at the gate?

Yes, and the reading is checked rather than trusted. Trailer numbers, container IDs, and chassis IDs are read with OCR trained on the fonts, placements, and wear your gate actually sees, container IDs are validated against the ISO 6346 check digit, and the read is matched against the appointment and the carrier's manifest, so a misread is caught at the gate rather than discovered at the dock. Plate and logo reads add a second identifier when the number is obscured. A read that does not match anything routes to the gate clerk with the image, which is a faster check than typing the number from the windshield, and every gate event keeps the image so a dispute later has a picture to look at.

Can it integrate with our YMS, WMS, and TMS?

Yes. Roboflow Inference (opens in a new tab) runs on an edge device at the site and exposes a standard API and webhooks, so gate reads, trailer locations, moves, and states flow into your existing systems: yard management systems from Blue Yonder, Manhattan, C3 Solutions, and others, WMS and TMS platforms, dock scheduling and appointment systems, carrier portals, and alerting into Slack, Microsoft Teams, and radio dispatch, through REST, MQTT, webhooks, and direct database writes.

‍