IMC Companies is touting its SmartStacks app as “the biggest breakthrough in drayage since the container.”
SmartStacks is IMC’s proprietary approach to the “peel pile” process and is designed to increase cargo movement and driver productivity, decrease container dwell times and loosen supply chain bottlenecks.
Collierville, Tennessee-based IMC, with its fleet of trucks and chassis and integrated network of smart depots, moves cargo to and from all major rails and ports in the country.
IMC explained that in a traditional peel pile process, drivers pull up to the indicated stack and take the top container instead of waiting for a specific box that could be anywhere in the pile. Using the SmartStacks app, drivers can instantly see a specific container’s destination and deliver it to that location or a nearby IMC depot.
“With this new methodology, IMC has tripled driver productivity, eliminated wasted lifts and made cargo more accessible,” the drayage company said in a news release. “The process has decreased container dwell time from 12 days to under two days and has reduced fuel usage and truck emissions by cutting idling time by 67%. In addition, SmartStacks improves chassis utilization and facilitates empty container returns.”
Mason George, IMC’s president of national accounts, said the SmartStacks process “not only gets containers out of the gate faster, it gives drivers the freedom to choose based on their own schedule and hours, provides the speed, attention and faster throughput at port facilities and improves the environmental impact caused by idling vehicles.
“For these reasons, we consider SmartStacks to be the biggest breakthrough in drayage since the container.”
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