You manage a container depot/Dry port (ICD).
You juggle Excel sheets, phone photos, quotes sent by email, and multiple client or carrier interfaces for your team.
Customers expect real-time visibility. Your teams re-enter data.
You’re losing time.
Good news: there’s a simpler path. Start digitizing your depot with yard management software — step by step.
3 Strategic Yard Management Software Models
When a depot wants to digitize operations, three main software options exist:
- SaaS: Online yard management software via subscription. The provider hosts, secures, and updates it.
- On-Premise: Installed on your own servers. You manage the infrastructure.
- In-House: You develop your own software. Full control — and full responsibility.
This guide helps you choose quickly — and wisely.
Goal: Pick the yard management solution that best fits your operations, budget, and internal resources.
Transparency: Yes, we offer a SaaS yard management platform. But this article is based on 25+ years of real experience in logistics — especially in inland container depots (ICDs) — not sales talk.
The 3 Models, Explained Simply
✅ SaaS — The yard software that “just works”
How it works:
You log in and use it. The vendor takes care of everything else.
In the yard:
A tablet at the gate. OCR scans the container number. The file opens. Damage photos, EMR report, and quote sent in EDI via email or API.
No servers to install. No updates to plan.
- You manage: users, tablets/computers, and your internet connection.
- You don’t manage: servers, backups, security, software updates.
⚠️ On-Premise — “Your servers, your risks”
How it works:
You buy licenses, install them on your own infrastructure, and maintain everything yourself.
In the yard:
A server room. Backups. Security patches. Outages to handle.
Each new version requires downtime. You’ll need an internal IT team or a service provider. Sometimes this is offered by the software vendor.
- You manage: everything.
- The vendor provides: the yard management software and possibly support under contract.
🚧 In-House — “Your software, your marathon”
How it works:
You recruit. You design. You build. You maintain.
In the yard:
You develop your own OCR, EMR, quoting system, and client portal.
You manage the roadmap, fix bugs, and deal with turnover.
Every new feature is a full project. You move away from your core mission — running a container depot — and start functioning like a tech company.
Your IT team may already be bigger than your yard team. Count them to check.
- You manage: product, code, testing, deployment, support, and infrastructure.
- You control: everything — and carry all the weight.
Which Yard Software Model Fits Your Profile?
🧩 1 to 5 depots, with little or no IT team? → Choose SaaS.
- Fast deployment
- Low mental load
- Annual cost under €150,000
🧩 More than 5 sites, small IT team, or CIO? → On-Premise can work.
- Viable if infrastructure is already in place
- Good for deep system integrations
- Annual cost: €1–2 million
- Justified if servers are shared across other tools
🧩 Large international group or shipping line with dozens of depots? → In-House may be justified
- Only if the yard management software becomes a true competitive edge
- Rarely is the case in container depots.
- Cost: €10M+/year, excluding HR
- Ironically, most custom software is outsourced anyway.
3 Key Questions to Help You Decide
1. What’s your real budget for yard management software?
- SaaS: Predictable monthly/annual fees. Includes hosting, updates, backups, and support.
→ Around €50,000 per site/year. - On-Premise: Licenses, servers, IT salaries, maintenance — unexpected costs stack up.
→ Around €1–2 million/year. - In-House: Full team salaries, years of development, risk of failure, or delays.
→ €10M+/year, plus 5 years of dev time.
✅ Rule of thumb:
For stable, predictable costs → go SaaS.
With an existing IT backbone → on-premises is possible.
For long-term software control (and risk) → In-House is a strategic bet.
2. What’s your execution timeline?
- SaaS: From contract to yard: 4–12 weeks (often phased rollouts)
- On-Premise: 6 to 12 months
- In-House: 18–48 months for a viable tool
✅ Rule of thumb:
If a client wants an EDI connection within weeks → SaaS is the only realistic option.
3. What internal resources can you sustain long-term?
- SaaS: One key person to onboard and monitor. Vendor handles the complexity.
- On-Premise: An IT team is required for patches, updates, support, and training.
- In-House: Continuous Product and Dev team needed. Maintenance alone is heavy. Dev is even heavier.
✅ Rule of thumb:
If your internal IT is weak or hiring is a challenge → avoid On-Premise and In-House.
Ready to Simplify Your Yard Operations?
📞 Book a Demo to discover how yard management software like Shipzzer can digitize your depot — with less complexity, and faster ROI.
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