Art:Queue

What is the problem of lining cars in front of the gates of elevators, grain terminals, ports, and other enterprises?

It is the fact that cars, most often, drive according to the principle – the earlier they arrive, the faster they will be served. As a result – congested truck parking lot, clogged roadsides, cars are parked outside the gates of the enterprise.

Everyone is trying to solve the problem of queues with cars that have already arrived, but it should be solved in a fundamentally different way — with those who are just about to go!

Cars should leave when they know for sure that the terminal will serve them without long downtime and waiting.

The solution to the problem of queues and downtimes: digital queue + truck parking lot.

The system is designed to:

Prompt acceptance of applications and formation of an digital queue of vehicles by allocating time-slots for the vehicles processing, taking into account the type of transported goods, technological needs and specifics of the consignee’s business process (port, cargo terminal, grain storage, warehouse, customs terminal, etc.).

Operation options of the digital queue:

The digital queue can be used in two modes:

Single time-slot operation.

A time-slot is allocated for one car with an exact time of arrival:

• to the gate of the consignee (grain storage, grain terminal, port, enterprise, etc.)
• to the truck parking lot, where the vehicle undergoes preliminary processing (sighting, weighing, laboratory analyses, cargo and container inspection, photo and video recording, informing the consignor and consignee, etc.) and then leaves for the consignee.

Using group time-slots.

At the first stage the driver is given a group time-slot to arrive at the truck parking lot or control point, which is calculated for several (10-15) cars and has a duration of about 1-2 hours.

Upon arrival at the truck parking lot (control point), the driver confirms this in the «Art:Line» mobile application, which verifies this fact according to the geolocation data, and only then, the driver is automatically assigned a single time-slot to enter the consignee’s territory (storage area).

Otherwise, the scheme of operation is similar to the scheme with a single time-slot.

Composition:

The » Line Operator’s Automated Workstation» form is intended for the consignee’s employee who is responsible for working with the digital queue.

Web application «Driver’s Personal Account». Works on mobile devices via web-browser as a usual web-site and allows drivers to make requests to the queue dispatcher (operator) to put the car in the queue to enter the terminal.

The «Truck parking lot Dispatcher» panel allows to working with arrived at the parking lot transport. More detailed features description is given here

«Consignee’s Personal Account» is a workplace of the consignee (stevedore, port, etc.), which allows receiving information on the availability of vehicles and cargoes arrived to its address and calling them from the parking area to the territory.

It is used when one entry line to the storage or port gate is used by several different consignees, who need to understand whether their vehicles have already arrived at the storage and call them for unloading (loading) according to their own production plans.

• Control of vehicles arrival to the parking lot.
• Calling of vehicles arriving for unloading from the parking lot.
• Prompt receipt of vehicles registers and other documents

«Consignor’s personal account» is a workplace of a consignor ‘s employee (supplier, trader, etc.), which allows exchanging information about his vehicles sent and arrived to the parking lot

• Submitting applications to put the vehicles in the queue.
• Control of the vehicles during the trip, their arrival at the parking lot area and internal logistics in the terminal.
• Prompt receipt of vehicles registers and other documents.
• Obtaining information on grain quality and net weight of delivered products.

Mobile application «Art:Registrar». It is intended for an employee working at the site of vehicle storage and controlling the actual arrival of the vehicle at the site, as well as the reliability of all the data from delivery note and entered by the driver when filling in the application form.

Used when the truck parking lot site is located in a separate area and it is not possible to use a computer.

The features  of each software element can vary depending on the specific customer and his business processes.

Key features:

• Registration of drivers in the system, management of access rights;
• Automated entry of the waiting list application;
• Possibility to enter information from the delivery note;
• The dispatcher receives and co-ordinates applications from drivers, confirms them automatically or manually and allocates the appropriate time-slot;
• Two-way communication with the dispatcher (line operator) via SMS and push notifications:
  • «get in line»,
  • «went on a trip»
  • «road delay»,
  • «arrived at the truck parking lot «
  • «call from the truck parking lot to the terminal», etc.
• Convenient graphical interface for visualisation of accepted applications in a calendar table with status indication.
• Slot duration management, possibility of automatic and manual placement of applications for vehicle arrival
• Possibility to group applications for vehicle arrival by different characteristics (cargo, customer, priority) and highlight by color
• Possibility of manual and semi-automatic registration of previously unregistered vehicles arriving at the parking lot;
• Based on the actual information about vehicles in the storage area, forming of lists of vehicles to enter the cargo handling enterprise (port, terminal, etc.).
• Forming of the reports about vehicle trips for reconciling  the information with the carriers.
• Notification of drivers about the call to the territory with indication of time-slot and order. Notification of drivers about changing places in the queue and other non-standard situations (alarms).
• Display the location of vehicles within the truck parking lot area and the port;
• Compliance with security requirements: minimization of human factor influence, separation of access rights, possibility to block potentially risky functions, connection with the photo-fixation system, maintenance of «black» and «grey» list of cars.

Business process diagram:

One of the variants of the diagram of business processes of digital queue operation at a real enterprise (click on the picture to enlarge)

Depending on the type of cargo handled, the actual traffic pattern and other conditions, the logic of the digital queue can be adjusted to meet specific customer requirements. Technical means of traffic management (traffic lights, barriers, electronic boards), photo and video recording systems, scanners and printers for printing bar or QR codes, etc. can be added to it.

More information on how the system works can be seen in the presentation.

The logic of the digital queue line for the grain storage and grain terminal is described in more detail here, and for the Danube ports here.

The practical experience of implementing an digital queue system at “Louis Dreyfus Company”, one of the market leaders in the purchasing and processing of agricultural products in Ukraine, is described in the article «Who wants — looks for an opportunity, who does not want — for a reason».

The complex can be supplied

• As a separate product.
• Integrate into the customer’s existing accounting system.
• Together with our developed solutions, «Art:Grain Terminal«, «Art: Elevator«, «Art:Oil Terminal«.
• Can run on both customer servers and cloud servers.

A series of training videos on working with the digital queue system for the «Queue Operator» (dispatcher) can be viewed at this link