For food and beverage manufacturers, sustainability is no longer a side initiative — it’s a core operating principle.

Faced with rising ESG expectations, carbon reduction mandates and consumer pressure for climate-conscious sourcing, companies are reevaluating every link in their supply chain.

Yet one of the most fuel-intensive, labor-constrained and congestion-prone areas often goes overlooked: yard operations.

While warehouse automation, transportation optimization and greener packaging are grabbing headlines and budgets, trailer yards remain largely unmanaged. They are the transitional spaces where inbound and outbound logistics meet. Where trailers sit, trucks idle, and workers navigate daily chaos with little system-wide oversight. For companies serious about cutting emissions and improving operational efficiency, this is a missed opportunity hiding in plain sight.

Explore More Sustainability

The Hidden Footprint of Yard Operations

Yard operations may appear minor compared to full-scale logistics networks, but their collective environmental impact is significant. Consider:

• Diesel-powered yard trucks often idle or run inefficient short-haul moves, generating excessive CO₂ and nitrogen oxide emissions.
• Congestion and dwell times force refrigerated trailers to run longer, increasing energy use and the risk of spoilage for temperature-sensitive goods.
• Uncoordinated labor and equipment use more resources than necessary, often without access to real-time data or performance accountability.
• Health impacts from prolonged diesel exposure affect yard workers, contributing to higher turnover and increased safety risks.

For a food manufacturer operating multiple distribution or manufacturing facilities, these inefficiencies scale quickly, resulting in unnecessary emissions, waste and labor costs, many of which are not captured in traditional supply chain KPIs.

Why Traditional Yard Management Falls Short

Most food and beverage manufacturers still manage yards with clipboards, radios or siloed technology platforms that lack integration. Even when yard management systems (YMS) are used, they often provide site-level benefits without addressing systemic inefficiencies across the network.

The result? Trailers go missing. Yard trucks circle aimlessly. Docks become congested. And sustainability initiatives stall at the gate.

To address this, companies must stop treating yard operations as a tactical necessity and begin managing them as a strategic function. This requires more than isolated tech. It requires a Yard Operating System approach.

A Systems-Based Approach: The Yard Operating System

A yard operating system (YOS) is a structured, integrated framework that unifies yard operations across sites, aligning people, processes, equipment, and technology under shared goals, including sustainability.

Here’s how it works:

1. Electrification of Yard Trucks

Diesel yard trucks are reliable workhorses, but they come with heavy environmental and operational costs. Switching to electric yard trucks reduces fuel consumption by up to 80%, slashes maintenance costs and eliminates direct emissions. For food manufacturers with refrigerated trailers, this also reduces ambient emissions that can affect dock workers and sensitive cargo.

2. Real-Time Trailer Visibility

Modern YOS platforms offer real-time trailer tracking, enabling faster trailer turns, reduced dwell times and more informed move planning. This not only minimizes fuel burn but also ensures product integrity for temperature-controlled freight.

3. Improved Labor and Equipment Utilization

With better data and automation, companies can allocate labor more efficiently, avoiding unnecessary overtime and underutilized equipment. That means fewer wasted resources and lower operational emissions per trailer move.

4. Dock and Yard Synchronization

Yard and warehouse operations must operate as a single unit. Integrated systems help coordinate dock availability with trailer movement, reducing congestion, lowering energy use and ensuring that time-sensitive goods move through the supply chain without delay.

5. Measurable Sustainability KPIs

A YOS makes sustainability trackable. Manufacturers can monitor metrics like spotter productivity, average trailer dwell time, idle hours, EV usage rates and emissions per move, tying these directly to broader ESG targets.

Healthier Yards, Healthier Workplaces

Sustainability isn’t just about emissions, it’s about people. Exposure to diesel in enclosed yards poses long-term health risks, including respiratory issues and fatigue. By electrifying yard fleets and reducing idle time, manufacturers can create healthier, quieter and safer environments for employees, a critical factor in worker satisfaction and retention.

Final Thought: Making Power Moves

Food and beverage manufacturers and grocery retailers operate in one of the most sensitive, time-critical and tightly regulated sectors of the supply chain. Freshness, safety and speed are non-negotiable, and today, sustainability is just as mission-critical.

Yet while most ESG strategies focus upstream, on packaging, sourcing and transportation, yard operations represent a high-impact opportunity.

Trailer yards may not show up on carbon reports or balance sheets with the same clarity as long-haul transport, but the impact is real. Each diesel yard truck can burn up to 10,000 gallons of fuel per site annually. Idle refrigerated trailers can consume 1 gallon of fuel per hour. And a single trailer delayed at the dock can set off a chain reaction of waste, dwell time and losses.

This is where sustainability and operational excellence collide.

By adopting a YOS, a holistic framework that unifies people, process, equipment and data, manufacturers can eliminate systemic waste, reduce emissions and create a safer, healthier work environment. Not as a compliance checkbox, but as a long-term, strategic advantage.