Setting up the yard and its spots

Summary

Each yard is a layout with its parking spots and, optionally, reference elements such as entrances, roads or the guard house. What you draw here is exactly what the team sees on the yard board: the spots trailers can be sent to, their zones for filtering and their shape on the map.

Before you start

Module: the warehouse must have the Yard module.
Permission: Configure Yard. By default it comes with the Admin and Super Admin roles; Supervisor does not have it. See Roles and permissions.
The warehouse set up. A yard belongs to a single warehouse.
Your yard plan (recommended): an aerial photo or sketch to use as background, and the list of how spots are numbered on the ground.

Where it is set up

In Admin › Configuration, open Parking Areas. You can also get there with the Configure button on the yard board, which opens the active yard directly.

The yard list: name, warehouse, status, number of spots and each yard’s actions.

The Manage Parking Areas list shows each yard with its warehouse, status, number of spots and the Configure and delete buttons.

Creating a yard

Press Add New Yard.
Type the name (required, up to 255 characters), pick the warehouse (required) and leave the status as active.
Save. You land straight in the yard editor to draw its spots.

Tip: the creation form always shows in English, even if your system is in Spanish. It has just three fields, in this order: yard name, warehouse and status (active or inactive).

When the warehouse’s first yard is created, the system also creates an internal yard-type dock. It queues drivers who check in to drop or pick up a trailer in the yard there. It does not show on the dock board or in assignment lists; do not delete it.

Yard settings

At the top of the editor is the collapsible Yard Settings section (identity, canvas size, dwell thresholds and background image):

Field	What it does
Name and Status	Required. An inactive yard is not offered as a destination when sending trailers from the dock board.
Initial view	Map or List: which view the yard board opens with. A yard with many spots in a row is easier to work as a list.
Canvas width and Canvas height	In pixels, from 100 to 50,000. Blank keeps the previous value.
Dwell warning (min) and Dwell critical (min)	After how many minutes a trailer counts as staying too long (120 and 240 by default; 1 to 10,000).
Background image	An aerial photo or map (image up to 5 MB) to draw the spots on. Remove deletes it.

Press Save settings. Next to it you see Current Statistics: total, available and occupied spots.

Important: although the on-screen help says the dwell times turn spots yellow and red, today they are only used in the Yard Inventory report to flag each trailer as warning or critical. The yard board does not change color by dwell time.

The layout editor

The editor: yard settings at the top, the canvas with the spots in the middle and, on the right, the selected spot’s properties and the type legend.

The header has Back and a selector with the yards of the same warehouse, to jump between them. Below are the Spots and Elements tabs and the bar with Add Spot, Add multiple, Grid (shows or hides the grid), Auto Arrange, the zoom (minus, percentage, plus and full screen) and Save Layout.

The Yard Layout canvas counts its spots and elements. On the right, Spot Properties reads Click on a spot to edit its properties until you pick one.

Important: positions, sizes, rotations, types and zones are only saved when you press Save Layout. If you try to leave with unsaved changes, the browser warns you. Adding and deleting spots, on the other hand, is saved immediately.

Adding spots

Press Add Spot. The Add New Spot window asks for:

Spot ID — required: letters, numbers, hyphen and underscore, up to 16 characters, no spaces and unique in the yard (for example A1, B-02, 15).
Spot Type — see below. If you don’t choose, it is Parking.
Zone — free text up to 50 characters (for example "North" or "A"); used for filtering on the yard board and in Yard Inventory.

Then drag it into place on the layout. When you pick a spot, the properties panel lets you change its type, zone, Width and Height (1 to 50) and Rotation (0 to 360 degrees), or Delete Spot.

Spot types

Type	What for
Parking	The normal one: any trailer.
Loading	Spots near the docks, for trailers about to be loaded.
Staging	Spots where freight or trailers are lined up before going to a dock.
Hot Spot	Spots reserved for urgent work.
Maintenance	Spots out of use or for units under repair.

The type is informational: it changes the border color in the editor, but any available spot can be used as a destination. The system does not stop you from sending a trailer to a Maintenance spot.

Important: the Waiting Area type shows in the list but today cannot be saved: you get a validation error. If your installation uses the waiting area, ask support to set those spots up.

Adding several at once

Press Add multiple and click on the canvas where the row should start.
How many? — 1 to 50.
Prefix (optional) and Suffix (optional) — letters, numbers, hyphen or underscore, up to 12 characters each. Start at — the first number. For example, prefix A- starting at 1 gives A-1, A-2, A-3…
Check Pad numbers with zeros if you want A-01, A-02 instead of A-1, A-2.
Pick type and zone, check the Preview and press Create … spots.

If any ID already exists (the window lists them under These IDs already exist:), if any would exceed 16 characters, or if the row does not fit from the point you picked, none is created and the system tells you why.

Moving or changing several at once

There is no separate bulk-edit screen. On the canvas, drag over an empty area to box several spots; the panel shows how many items you selected. Then drag any of them to move the whole group. A click on an empty area clears the selection. Auto Arrange lays all spots out in a grid. Remember to Save Layout.

Layout elements

In the Elements tab, Add Element draws references that are not spots: Entrance, Exit, Road, Building, Dock Area, Fence, Label, Parking Area, Guard House or Office. Each has a label (up to 100 characters), size, rotation and color. They show on the yard board layout but cannot be used for parking.

Spot statuses

A spot can only be available or occupied, and the system decides that from the moves: it cannot be changed by hand. Every new spot starts available. On the yard board, the trailer in the spot shows as Empty or Loaded depending on the job type (see Colors and empty or loaded trailers).

Deleting spots and yards

A spot is deleted with Delete Spot (asks for confirmation). It cannot be deleted while it has a job assigned: you see Cannot delete spot with an active job assigned. Move or release it first.
A yard is deleted with the delete button in the list (or Delete Yard), together with all its spots and elements. It asks Are you sure you want to delete this yard?

Important: today the system does not prevent deleting a yard with trailers in it. Before deleting, confirm on the yard board that all its spots are free; otherwise those jobs are left pointing to spots that no longer exist. If you just want to stop using it, set it as inactive.

What changes in other modules

Yard board: spots, zones and elements appear as saved; with several yards, the Active yard selector appears.
Dock board: when sending a trailer to the yard, the window offers the active yards and their available spots.
Reports: Yard Inventory uses the zones and dwell times; Yard Management keeps the move history of each spot. See The system reports.
Kiosk: once the warehouse has a yard, the kiosk can offer drivers to drop or pick up trailers in the yard (see Driver registration).

Example: a 24-spot yard

Create the yard North Yard in the Principal warehouse.
In Yard Settings, upload the aerial photo, keep the initial view on Map, set the warning at 480 minutes and critical at 1,440 (one day), and save.
With Add multiple: 12 spots, prefix N-, start at 1, zero-padded, zone North, type Parking. N-01 to N-12 are created.
Another row: 8 spots, prefix C-, zone Loading, type Loading. And 4 spots M-1 to M-4 of type Maintenance.
Add the Entrance, Guard House and Dock Area elements, place the rows over the photo and press Save Layout.

Messages you may see

Message	What to do
A spot with this ID already exists in this yard	Use another ID.
Some generated IDs would exceed 16 characters…	Shorten the prefix, suffix or starting number.
These spots don’t fit from the chosen origin…	Reduce the count or click higher or further left.
Cannot delete spot with an active job assigned	Move or release the trailer first.
Error saving layout	Usually the Waiting Area type; change it and save again.
Layout saved successfully	Done: the yard board already shows the changes.

Best practices

Use the same IDs painted on the ground: that is what drivers and the team read.
Give every spot a zone: filters and yard inventory become useful.
Create spots in rows with Add multiple; it is faster and avoids numbering mistakes.
Save the layout before switching yard or tab.
Do not delete yards in use; set them inactive.

Troubleshooting

I moved the spots and the yard board still shows them where they were.

You didn’t press Save Layout. Go back to the editor, arrange them and save.

Saving gives an error about the spot type.

The Waiting Area type cannot be saved. Pick another type.

The Configure button on the yard board, or Parking Areas under Configuration, is missing.

Your user lacks the Configure Yard permission.

The background image doesn’t show.

Check it is under 5 MB and an image. If you uploaded it hours ago, reload the page.

Frequently asked questions

Can I change a spot’s number?

No: once created, the ID is display-only. If you need another name, create the new spot and delete the old one when it is free.

Can a warehouse have several yards?

Yes. Each yard has its own layout, and the yard board shows the Active yard selector to switch between them. When sending a trailer to the yard from the dock board you also choose which yard it goes to.

What happens if I set a yard as inactive?

It is no longer offered as a destination when sending trailers from the dock board. Its spots and the trailers already in it are not touched.