Before you can optimize your operations, you need a full view of what’s happening across your terminal.
At the heart of that terminal transformation is Intermodal Pro (IPRO), our foundational TOS solution enabling efficient rail, yard, and gate planning for terminals of any size. Here are the top 10 reasons why your terminal needs to upgrade to IPRO and the rest of the Tideworks TOS suite.
1. Configurable for Any Rail Terminal Type
The Tideworks TOS suite is a highly configurable set of solutions that work in conventional and automated terminals of any size—including Traffic Control, Terminal View, Extensibility, and tight integrations with all of your systems. Instead of forcing terminals to adopt new workflows and processes that don’t suit their operational needs, IPRO can be tailored to fit them, including specialized operations like shotgun loading
IPRO also offers an expansive feature set where terminals can choose to use only the features that benefit their operations. As needs evolve, Tideworks’ expert Professional Services team can work with terminals to easily adopt more features on their own terms, keeping IPRO optimized to their facility’s unique needs.
2. Real-time Guided Operations
IPRO’s yard visualization and planning features empower operators with real-time insight to optimize yard operations as work unfolds, helping terminals to move containers more efficiently, eliminating unproductive moves and unnecessary delays…
Live Lift ramping moves containers directly between trucks and railcars without staging them in the yard, improving crane utilization and yard availability. Just-in-time planning maximizes yard space and minimizes deramping transports, resulting in better operational flow that benefits both the rail terminal and its customers.
Guided real-time execution aligns advanced planning with actual terminal conditions—including yard, labor, and equipment planning—helping reduce yard congestion, lower labor costs, and drive more productive moves across the terminal.
3. Move Orchestration and Control
IPRO’s move orchestration features equip operators to work more efficiently and boost productivity.
Move segmentation breaks planned moves into smaller segments, generates individual work orders for each, and sequences them in the optimal order. This makes it easier for operators to execute those planned moves correctly and facilitates smooth move execution, reduces bottlenecks, and minimizes unnecessary equipment dwell.
Advanced move prioritization dynamically ranks moves according to the terminal’s configurable criteria, such as yard planning, customer service objectives, or other operational needs.
IPRO integrates move segmentation and prioritization into your operational workflows, helping operators make more productive moves and improving overall yard efficiency.
4. Optimized Crane Productivity
When workloads are imbalanced across crane work areas, crane optimization dynamically distributes work so that all of your cranes are being utilized instead of sitting idle. Optimization also uses configured priority groupings to ensure that your terminal cranes are moving the smallest amount of distance possible.
By balancing crane workloads and minimizing move distances, crane optimization reduces unnecessary crane movements and increases throughput across all crane divisions. Reduced move distance also decreases fuel and maintenance costs.
As crane workloads fluctuate, priority groupings and workload distributions can be reset to keep operations running smoothly in ever-changing conditions.
5. Mobile Tools for Operators
Mobile applications in the yard can support a variety of conventional, semi-automated, wheeled, or ground operations. Mobile clients can integrate with position detection (DGPS) systems to give operators more accurate inventory information that enhances decision-making and overall terminal productivity.
Previous iterations of mobile applications consumed too much memory and processing power for laptops and tablets—and they required costly Wi-Fi or cellular connections to keep them online. Fortunately, new versions of these applications are deployable as browser-based applications that can run on low-cost mobile devices. Their lightweight design, low bandwidth requirements, and more affordable hardware costs make them more practical and functional tools for the yard.
These mobile applications also work with an active directory, making it easy for IT to manage user permissions for these applications alongside the rest of the solutions and tools within your terminal system.
6. Seamless Network Integration
The Tideworks Intermodal TOS suite is designed and developed to integrate seamlessly with your railroad’s broader network host system, and connect to operational technologies such as DGPS, OCR, RFID, and gate management, as well as with automated equipment for remote crane operators and surveyors.
By integrating with the network host system, rail operators gain visibility across their entire network, including where every rail card is located and where it is headed next. That data flows via APIs into rail and yard planning solutions and back to the host system..
Rail companies can use this ecosystem integration to monitor systems in real-time, dynamically automate equipment, and keep operations optimized and in sync. Planning is smarter, execution is faster, and customers enjoy a smoother experience: Integration with gate systems, for example, enabling truckers to seamlessly ingate and outgate without unnecessary delays.
7. Advanced Rail Automation
The Tideworks TOS suite supports rail automation for both semi- and fully automated rail environments, including automated crane operations driven by system logic to optimize for throughput and cost efficiency.
Rail automation can also enhance set-aside decisions by using weighted logic to determine the best location for temporary container placement, reducing re-handling and unnecessary moves. Regardless of the automation level, Tideworks is the industry leader in integrating and supporting equipment automation in the yard.
8. Digital Twin Visibility
Tideworks Terminal View solution provides a real-time digital twin of your terminal in 2D or 3D, displaying container locations, equipment, and move progress across the yard. It consolidates operations, alerts, and work orders in a single intuitive interface, empowering operators with the real-time insights they need to make faster, more informed decisions.
Those insights improve coordination, reduce miscommunication and support proactive problem solving. Operators can use Terminal View to identify potential bottlenecks and collisions before they occur, allowing them to take corrective action that optimizes operational flow and increases terminal productivity.
9. Flexible, Future-ready Platform
Extensibility is a flexible platform architecture that allows easy integration of new features, tools, and third-party systems. Through APIs, event-driven integration tools, and scripting capabilities, Extensibility allows terminals to change their operational needs without disrupting existing workflows.
With Extensibility, terminals are able to add new capabilities or integrate new technologies as their terminal evolves, addressing targeted business requirements without bulky, complex integrations that require heavy involvement of your IT team.
This flexibility helps future-proof terminal operations by providing the customization options needed to keep pace with terminal growth and technological innovation.
10. Trusted Expert Support
The full value of the Tideworks TOS suite is only unlocked when terminals partner with an experienced team of operations professionals to tailor those systems and technology to their specific needs. Many of our Professional Services team members have firsthand terminal management experience with deep insight into the challenges rail operators face to optimize their operations.
Whether handling day-to-day EDI management, guiding TOS implementation and training, or fine-tuning your systems for optimal performance, Tideworks Professional Services delivers expert guidance and strategic partnership for long term operational success.