Vehicle Yard

Vehicle yard management for cars waiting to clear, ship or be delivered

Every vehicle scanned in by its VIN, its customs status beside it, the keys accounted for, and a release that cannot happen while a hold is open. Owners see their cars in a portal; deliveries go out on your road trips; storage and services land on the owner's invoice or the shipment's.

Included in Professional and above as the warehouse-or-yard choice.

Screenshot: Vehicle yard board — real system, demo company
Cars in the yard by owner and status, customs status per VIN, releases due today, bays on the plan

The yard board — who owns what, where it is parked, what is cleared and what is held

VIN gate-in

Scan the VIN at the gate and the car is in the yard with its photos, bay and inspection

The barcode on the door post is read by phone, the truck and driver recorded, the damage walk done on the standard code set with photos, and a bay suggested on the plan. A car arriving on an import booking is matched to it by VIN, so the booking shows “in yard” the moment it arrives.

  • Typing as the fallback when the label is worn
  • One car per bay, enforced
  • Trucks and drivers at the gate linked to your fleet records
Screenshot: Gate in by VIN — real system, demo company
VIN scanned, booking matched, damage codes on the walk-round, photos, suggested bay
Screenshot: Customs status and guarantees — real system, demo company
Per VIN: bonded, cleared, re-export filed, exited; guarantee lodged and refund due

Customs status and guarantees

A car's customs status follows its customs job, and an open job is an automatic hold

Bonded, cleared, re-export filed, exited — read from the customs job, never typed on the yard. A re-export guarantee is tracked until it is refunded, so no deposit is forgotten in a drawer.

  • Release blocked while the customs job is open
  • Holds lifted only by an approver, every lift recorded
  • Documents per vehicle in one place

Release orders and keys

Release what the owner authorised, hand over the keys, and know who took them

An owner's instruction or a booking is the release order. The gate checks it against the car's holds and customs status before the car moves. Keys are tracked from the key board to the driver, so a car does not leave without them and a set is never lost between shifts.

  • Release (authorised) and gate out (left) kept apart
  • Key custody per vehicle with who holds them
  • Collection by the owner or delivery by you
Screenshot: Release order and key board — real system, demo company
Owner's release instruction, the gate check, key custody for each VIN
Screenshot: Delivery trip with VINs — real system, demo company
A road trip listing the vehicles on it, own truck or subcontracted carrier, gate out linked

Deliveries on road trips

A delivery is a road trip listing its VINs, on your truck or a carrier's

Deliveries to the dealer or the customer are road trips in the same system: the trip carries the vehicles, gate out links to it, and the carrier is your own fleet or a subcontractor by the same rule the rest of the ERP uses. The customer's delivery is tracked like any other trip.

  • Proof of delivery per vehicle
  • Haulage charges on the same invoice as storage
  • Trip costs into the accounts

The owner's portal

Owners see their cars, the photos and the damage report, and ask for a release online

Each dealer, importer or exporter sees only their own vehicles: the bay, the inspection photos, the damage report, the documents and the customs status. They raise a release or delivery request from the portal rather than by phone.

  • Storage and services on a monthly invoice to the owner, or on the shipment's booking — chosen per customer
  • Statements and payments in the portal
Screenshot: Owner's portal — real system, demo company
An owner's vehicles with photos, damage report, customs status and a release request

How a car moves through the yard

  1. 1

    Expected

    On an import booking or an owner's notice

  2. 2

    Gate in

    VIN scanned, photos, damage codes

  3. 3

    Parked

    One car per bay on the plan

  4. 4

    Customs

    Status from the customs job; hold while open

  5. 5

    Services

    Inspection, wash, documents

  6. 6

    Released

    Owner's order checked against holds

  7. 7

    Gate out

    Collected, or delivered on a road trip

Key features

Bays on the plan

Zones and bays drawn in the layout designer; the current bay derived from the movement history.

Damage codes

Inspections on the standard vehicle damage code set, with photos, at gate in and gate out.

Keys

Key custody per vehicle: on the board, with a driver, or handed over.

Containers of cars

A container of vehicles links its VINs to the booking's container, so unstuffing is one scan each.

Storage billing

Storage per vehicle per day and services, on the owner's monthly invoice or the shipment's.

Phones in the yard

Gate and inspection on a phone; typing as the fallback.

Questions about the vehicle yard

Which plan includes it?

Professional and above. Each of those plans includes a warehouse OR a vehicle yard at the same price; a site running both adds US$ 299 per site per month.

Can a car be released with an open customs job?

No. An open customs job is a hold, and a hold blocks release until an approver lifts it.

Who gets the storage invoice?

Your choice per customer: a monthly yard invoice to the owner, or the charges on the shipment's booking so the customer gets one invoice for the whole shipment.

Do I need a scanner?

No. A phone reads the VIN barcode; a worn label is typed in.

Scan a VIN in, release it, deliver it

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