The Truth About Yard Visibility (And Why RFID Isn’t Always the Answer)

C3 Solutions
September 17, 2025

If you’ve ever stood at a gatehouse, flipping through a clipboard, and muttered, “Has anyone seen trailer 4725?”, you know exactly how frustrating poor yard visibility can be. It’s the kind of delay that snowballs. A late inbound means a dock crew sitting idle. That delay pushes outbound schedules back. And before you know it, the whole day’s plan is off track.

This isn’t just a “small inefficiency.” Across industries, poor yard visibility costs companies thousands of hours and millions of dollars every year in detention fees, wasted labor, and late shipments. And the irony? Many companies thought they had already solved this problem years ago with RFID technology.

In some cases, RFID worked well. However, by 2025, supply chain leaders are discovering that RFID, while useful, isn’t always the complete solution.

Before we discuss the tech shift, let’s take a step back and examine why yard visibility is such a significant issue and why even advanced technologies like RFID sometimes fall short of expectations.

Why Yard Visibility Is the Heartbeat of Smooth Operations?

When visibility is poor, yard teams spend valuable time searching for trailers, guessing arrival times, or waiting for missing paperwork. That creates:

Long lines at the gate
Empty docks because the right trailer isn’t in place
Expensive detention charges from carriers

According to Grand View Research, the dock and yard management market was valued at $2.34 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $7.27 billion by 2033. That growth is fueled by one thing: companies realizing they must have real-time visibility to stay competitive.

How RFID Became the Yard Visibility Favorite

In the early 2000s, RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology emerged as a promising method for tracking trailers, containers, and even pallets without the need for manual scanning. It worked like this:

An RFID tag is attached to the asset.
RFID readers at strategic points, such as the main gate or dock areas, detect the tag as it passes by.
The system logs the asset’s ID and location instantly.

Compared to barcodes, RFID’s big selling point was that it didn’t require a direct line of sight. Multiple tags could be read simultaneously, meaning a truck could roll past a reader without stopping and still be logged in.

The Promise of RFID in Yards

For yard managers, RFID sounded like the perfect solution. It offered:

Fast gate check-ins: No more manual typing or paper logs.
Accurate asset identification: Eliminate misreads from handwritten notes.
Integration with yard systems: Automatically trigger dock assignments or yard moves.
Lower labor needs: Fewer manual location checks around the yard.

Why RFID Falls Short in Real World Operations?

RFID isn’t useless. It still works well in certain contexts. However, as yards grew larger, more complex, and increasingly reliant on third-party carriers, limitations became apparent.

1. Costs Add Up Quickly

Passive tags are inexpensive (less than a penny each), but active RFID tags, which are required for longer ranges, can cost $15 to $20 each. Add the cost of readers, software, and integration, and a large multi-site operation can easily spend six figures just to get started.

2. Blind Spots in the Yard

Passive RFID only works when a tag passes within a few meters of a reader. That means if a trailer is moved to a new spot but doesn’t pass a reader, the system still shows it in the old location. For a large yard, that’s a big problem.

3. Signal Interference

Metal containers and bad weather are the natural enemies of RFID signals. Rain, snow, and even certain trailer placements can cause missed reads.

4. Accuracy Rate

RFID can achieve high accuracy in controlled environments, but in real-world yards its read rates often drop to 85–90% due to interference. In contrast, a Yard Management System (YMS) for example, maintains near 100% accuracy by cross-verifying trailer data from multiple sources such as dock scheduling, gate check-ins, and system integrations, ensuring reliable and consistent visibility across the yard.

5. Limited Context

RFID tells you where something was last seen, but not what’s happening. Is the trailer at a dock? Are its doors open? Is it damaged? RFID can’t answer these questions.

In the US and Canada, RFID adoption has been strongest in large distribution centers for retail and manufacturing, but often limited to internal fleets. In Europe, stricter data privacy rules and higher hardware costs have slowed adoption.

Globally, companies are realizing that they need a more flexible and lower-maintenance solution.

Vision AI: The Next Step in Yard Visibility

The use cases of AI in supply chains are promising, and adoption is increasing daily. One such very promising use case is of AI-led detection and decision-making. This is commonly known as Vision AI. Vision AI utilizes camera systems combined with artificial intelligence to track every movement in the yard, without the need for physical tags.

Here’s how it works:

AI-enabled cameras are installed at gates, docks, and key yard areas.
AI software identifies trailers, trucks, and containers using license plate recognition and other visual markers.
The system tracks movement in real-time and automatically updates the yard management system.
AI can also detect asset condition, dock occupancy, and unauthorized movements.

Since its introduction, it has gained popularity and now stands as the gold standard in yard management, thanks to its ease of use, quick adoption, lower maintenance, and numerous other advantages. Let’s understand these better.

Why Vision AI Is Outperforming RFID?

1. No Tags Required

You don’t need to buy or attach anything to the asset, making it ideal for high-volume yards that deal with multiple third-party carriers.

2. True Real-Time Tracking

AI can track movements anywhere in camera view, not just near fixed reader points.

3. Rich Data

Beyond location, Vision AI can tell if a trailer is loaded or empty, if doors are open, and even spot visible damage. This makes the life of yard managers so much easier. RFID can’t do this.

4. Scales Easily

Need to expand coverage? Add another camera. No need for expensive new readers or tags.

5. Better Long-Term ROI

Upfront camera installation costs are often lower than full RFID hardware and tagging, especially for multi-carrier yards. These cameras can serve dual purposes for security, splitting the cost across different use cases.

Bringing It All Together with C3 Solutions

In 2025, the best yard operations aren’t asking, “RFID or Vision AI?” they’re asking, “How fast can we get full, accurate yard visibility?”

RFID might still have a role, especially in controlled fleet environments. But for dynamic, multi-carrier yards.

When combined with a strong yard management system like C3 Solutions, Vision AI can:

Automate gate check-ins
Show real-time yard maps
Track assets without tags
Reduce detention fees
Keep docks fully utilized

RFID got us part of the way. Vision AI is going to take us ahead, without the additional cost, complexity, or coverage gaps.

With C3 Solutions’ Vision AI-powered yard management system, you can stop hunting for trailers and start running a yard that works like clockwork. From the moment a truck arrives to the second it leaves, you’ll know exactly where everything is and what to do next.

Reach out to us today to understand how a Vision-AI-powered yard management solution can help your business.