Cargomatic’s Memphis container yard is a model for the country

February 15, 2024–Cargomatic has long been recognized as an industry innovator, particularly when it comes to linking shippers and truckers for better supply chain performance. 

Now, Cargomatic is getting known for its innovative approach to the use and development of container yards around the country, especially in Memphis, Tennessee.

“Memphis is unique to the logistics industry,” said Cargomatic Account Director Madeline Hirt, who specializes in container yards and who has been instrumental in setting up the company’s yard there.

Memphis is a major hub, Hirt says, where “lots of freight moves in and out and is dispersed throughout the entire country.” She further commented that it’s a “unique market where you’re not necessarily dealing with one animal or one beast here. You have a mix of everything together.”

“Everything at the rail is super urgent,” she says, knowing that in logistics everything generally “needs to be addressed now.” But she says that sense of urgency is taken to the “next level” in Memphis.

That’s not surprising since Memphis has five different rail systems and depots throughout the city, a challenging set of circumstances that requires the utmost in creativity to stay ahead of the game.

“You have to get creative,” Hirt says, especially when “coming up with more innovative solutions to pull everything out of the rail when you’ve got big trains coming in with a couple hundred containers.” 

Fortunately, Cargomatic has 11 acres at its Memphis container yard, which Hirt describes as a “good hub” and centrally located for storing containers after coming off a train and before going to the customer’s own facilities.  

“We have 2,000 spaces available for holding containers, and then if you mix in the chassis, we can add probably another 200 spaces on top of that,” Hirt says. The Cargomatic yard is a “center point” for many of the different warehouse facilities in the region.

“We’re located in a central place that’s easily accessible for drivers, where many of the train railways come through,” she says. That makes the Cargomatic Memphis yard a primary location for multiple people: “easy to access for drivers, easy to access for customers.”

To learn more about Cargomatic’s Memphis Yard, a model for the company’s other facilities around the country, be sure to listen to comments from Account Director Madeline Hirt.