IMC Changes the Drayage Process with SmartStacks

IMC Companies, the largest marine drayage company in the United States, is improving port efficiency with its own proprietary version of the “peel pile” process, called SmartStacks. The revolutionary approach increases cargo container movement and driver productivity, significantly decreases dwell times and loosens the bottleneck on the supply chain that has plagued shippers, ports, rails, the trucking industry and consumers for years.

In a peel pile process, drivers pull up to the indicated “pile” and simply take the top container from the terminal to “peel” from the pile, versus waiting for a specific container that could be located anywhere in the pile. However, these peel piles are typically used only by the largest importers with hundreds of containers on one ship, so the impact on drayage movement is not that strong.

IMC has revolutionized the peel pile process by developing SmartStacks. With SmartStacks, the containers of multiple shippers are placed into the same peel pile. Using IMC’s proprietary SmartStacks app, drivers instantly see the container’s destination and can choose to deliver the container to its final destination or instead bring it to a nearby IMC depot.

With this new methodology, IMC has tripled driver productivity, eliminated wasted lifts, and made cargo more accessible. The process has decreased container dwell time from 12 days to under 2 days and has reduced fuel usage and truck emissions by cutting idling time by 67%. In addition, SmartStacks improves chassis utilization and facilitates empty container returns.

“We wanted to improve the overall process for our customers, drivers and the industry,” said Mason George, president of National Accounts at IMC Companies. “This new process not only gets containers out of the gate faster; it gives drivers the freedom to choose based on their own schedule and hours, provides the speed, attention and faster throughput at port facilities and improves the environmental impact caused by idling vehicles.  For these reasons, we consider SmartStacks to be the biggest breakthrough in drayage since the container.”

IMC’s position as the nation’s largest marine drayage company is critical to the success of SmartStacks. The implementation of this innovation would not be possible without IMC’s capacity at strategic depots nationwide, the company’s proprietary technology and support team, plus the largest driver network in the U.S. to safely deliver the cargo.

To learn more about SmartStacks, view this informative video about how the process works: SmartStacks,the biggest breakthrough in drayage since the container