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Industries › Container Management

Route optimization built for fleets where the asset is always moving

Container management is a fundamentally different logistics problem. You’re not just routing drivers — you’re routing mobile inventory. Containers get delivered, parked for days or weeks, and picked up on demand. The asset is always somewhere in the field, and getting it to the next customer efficiently is where the money is made or lost. Wise Systems is a last-mile routing and dispatch platform for container fleets that need to minimize empty miles, track assets in real time, and turn field pickups into new customer deliveries without a trip back to the yard.

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Solve these common challenges with Wise Systems

Are you looking to streamline your container management? See how the Wise Systems delivery automation platform can help you solve these common challenges in container management

Eliminate bobtail and deadhead miles

Find and assign street turns automatically

Match containers to orders by type, size, and driver certification

Get real-time visibility into route execution

Meet customer time-windows

Adapt routes in real time as the day changes

Track every container across your field inventory

Measure plan vs. actual performance across every move and driver

Automate route planning and streamline delivery execution with powerful, easy-to-use applications that accelerate your fleet’s performance. Give dispatchers visibility and insight with the Dispatcher web application. Give drivers an intuitive delivery driver app that enables end-to-end navigation and coordination with merchandisers, or share key information with the mobile app your drivers already use.

Increase customer satisfaction with real-time insight into deliveries, and automated notifications that reflect your brand voice. 

Simplify data sharing between your systems of record with seamless API integrations.

Who are container management operatiors?

Container management operations served by Wise Systems include:

  • Portable storage container companies that deliver storage units to homes and businesses, manage multi-week stays, and coordinate final pickups and returns to storage yards
  • Intermodal and rail container operators managing container moves between terminals, customer sites, and transfer yards, with complex driver and equipment constraints per move
  • Waste and roll-off container operators managing dumpster and large container delivery, swap-out, and pickup across commercial and residential accounts with unpredictable volumes
  • Specialty container fleets involving refrigerated units, hazardous material containers, or specialized equipment requiring certified drivers and specific vehicle configurations
  • Moving and relocation container operators moving container businesses coordinating delivery, temporary storage, and final delivery across long-distance moves

Container fleets lose margin to empty miles — Wise Systems finds the repositioning opportunities to maximize the return on your operation.

Automated route planning for retail distribution - Wise Systems

Plan efficiently

Container drivers don’t run simple A-to-B routes. A single shift might include an empty delivery, a loaded pickup, a street turn, and a yard return — each with different time windows and equipment requirements. Route Planner keeps the plan clear and the day moving.

  • Simplified route building and stop visualizations with Route Planner 
  • Define territories and optimize container inventory allocation across multiple yards or depots with Strategic Planner
  • Convert day-of container orders into executable driver routes in minutes with Dispatcher
  • See every driver, every container assignment, and every in-progress move on one screen
  • Real-time visibility into route progress and ETAs
  • Capture precise arrival and departure at every customer site automatically with geofence-based auto-arrive and auto-depart
Explore Strategic Planner Explore Route Planner Explore Dispatcher

Give your drivers tools to execute complex, multi-day moves

Easy-to-use tools give drivers the flexibility and control to manage their delivery day while maximizing their productivity are key for successful wholesale distribution.  Give your drivers the tools they need:

  • Map and list views of stop sequences, including inventory details
  • Built in navigation with auto arrive-and-depart to move efficiently between stops
  • Manual route editing, including route re-optimization
  • Location sharing for coordination with merchandisers
  • Barcode scanning to scan packages on and off
  • Proof of delivery (POD) – photos, signatures, reason codes
  • Driver notes for sharing stop-specific details

Already have a driver app? Use Wise Systems APIs to power your own driver apps and other apps involved in your operations. 

Best of all? No more texting drivers with last-minute route changes. New stops are automatically added and threaded into their routes, and notifications delivered.

 

Explore Driver
Wise Systems driver mobile app for retail distribution.
Retail distributors improve the customer experience with Customer Portal from Wise Systems.

Elevate your brand with superior recipient experiences

Giving your delivery recipients visibility into their order ETAs is the hallmark of a well-functioning fleet, and one of the easiest and highest value actions you can take to ensure excellent customer service. 

With Customer Portal from Wise Systems, your delivery recipients receive: 

  • Text or email delivery status notifications with an ETA time window, and
  • The ability to track their package’s arrival via map view in real time. 

You also have customizable triggers to manage who’s notified and at what interval.

 

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Turn fleet data into continuous improvement

Give operations managers the visibility to identify what’s working, what’s not, and where to focus next. Performance Manager from Wise Systems lets your management team:

  • Compare planned vs. actual mileage, travel time, and on-time percentage
  • Drill down by driver, depot, or date range to pinpoint underperformance
  • Track trends over time to coach drivers and improve operational consistency
  • Export raw data for your BI or analytics team

 

Explore Performance Manager
Retail distributors integrate to automate routing, drive fleet utilization, and optimize routes during all stages of delivery.

Built for your ecosystem

Last-mile routing and dispatching solutions must integrate tightly with your broader technology stack. Working seamlessly with your systems of record is a hallmark of the Wise Systems delivery automation platform. It supports every stage of the last-mile delivery process – planning, execution, coordination and communication – with apps for delivery planners, dispatchers, drivers, managers and recipients and shares order, load-building and other data with your ERP, OMS, WMS or other systems

  • Integrate with your ERP, TMS and other backend systems, as well as your ELDs. 
  • Use the entire system or customize a solution to fit your team’s needs. 
  • Use the Driver app from Wise Systems or integrate Wise Systems’ data with your existing applications.
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Frequently asked questions

Container management routing software plans and dispatches drivers handling mobile asset operations — delivering empty containers, managing customer stays, executing pickups, and repositioning containers in the field. Unlike standard routing tools, it accounts for container type, size, equipment requirements, driver certifications, and real-time asset location. Wise Systems is a routing and dispatch platform built for container fleets that need to minimize bobtail miles and maximize asset utilization across one or more yards.
Wise Systems identifies field repositioning opportunities automatically. When a driver completes a final pickup, the system checks whether the container can be redirected directly to another customer — a street turn — rather than returning to the yard. It evaluates container type compatibility, customer time windows, driver location, and vehicle equipment in real time. This eliminates the empty yard trips that drive up cost without delivering value.
Yes. Wise Systems stores detailed container metadata — size, type, refrigeration configuration, and special equipment — and matches those attributes against customer order requirements at the time of dispatch. Driver certifications and vehicle equipment constraints are enforced in the same pass, ensuring only qualified drivers with the right equipment are assigned to each move.
Yes. Container operations don’t run on a fixed morning plan — new orders arrive, stays extend, and customers change pickup windows mid-shift. Wise Systems’ Dispatcher gives your team real-time visibility into every driver and container assignment on one screen. As conditions change, dispatchers can reassign stops and re-optimize routes without rebuilding from scratch.
Wise Systems integrates with major telematics providers including Samsara, Geotab, and Motive for live GPS tracking inside Dispatcher. It connects to OMS and order management platforms via API to pull container assignments automatically, and pushes completion data back to ERP and yard management systems for inventory reconciliation and billing.
Most routing tools are designed for fixed-inventory delivery — a parcel moving from warehouse to doorstep. Container management requires a fundamentally different model: the asset is mobile, the routing decision depends on what the container is, where it is, and where it’s needed next. Wise Systems is built for this multi-move, asset-centric logic — including street turn identification, container attribute matching, driver skill constraints, and dynamic re-optimization throughout the day.

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