TERMINAL OPERATING SYSTEM
Run your whole terminal on one platform, from booking to gate-out.
Built for KV terminals, inland hubs and municipal port and handling companies. Gate, yard, train and billing run in one continuous dossier, and train and terminal planning share one booking logic. Modular, in the cloud and live in weeks rather than a 12 to 18 month project.
THE PROBLEM
The gate runs on paper, the yard runs on Excel and the train runs on phone calls.
At most KV terminals, inland hubs and port handling companies, gate, yard, train and invoicing sit in separate tools. Data is keyed in more than once, and nobody sees the whole operation in one place.
Five tools for one process
Gate, yard, train, tracking and invoicing run in separate systems, so master data is maintained three times over.
Manual composition, paper records
Trains are composed by hand, so errors in weight, axle load or profile only surface once the train is en route. Damage is documented on paper or by phone photo, which leads to disputes with operators and wagon keepers that cannot be won.
Revenue that slips through
Storage fees and additional services are not billed in full, which is direct revenue loss. Without reliable KPIs, reporting is still compiled in Excel once a month.
THE RAIL-FLOW ANSWER
One system for the whole terminal.
Built for KV terminals, inland hubs and municipal port and handling companies, and connected to the rest of the Rail-Flow platform.
Modular cloud TOS
Start with gate and yard, then add train and billing when you are ready. Go-live in weeks rather than a 12 to 18 month implementation, with a predictable subscription and no multi-million licence.
Every move provable
Mandatory Sign-on-Glass signatures, step-by-step photo damage inspection and a full audit trail per unit. Every gate-in, move and gate-out leaves a record you can show the operator or wagon keeper.
Rail and EDI built in
Train composition arrives by EDI, so wagons and units are known before the train arrives. Native EDIFACT covers IFTMIN, CODECO and COREOR, and wagon checkout, CIM waybills and LSEOP or Binias confirmations run in the same platform.
HOW IT WORKS
Gate, yard, and train covered end-to-end.
The TOS follows every unit, every move and every wagon from the moment a truck reaches the gate until the train leaves the terminal. Your team handles disputes and deviations, and the system handles the rest.
Gate
Kiosk and web pre-check-in, with a driver app or a desk-assisted gate flow. Configurable checkpoint questions with conditional branches per dossier type. Damage inspection with photo capture and schematic marking (MINOR, MODERATE, SEVERE). Dual OPA / SOPA reference validation, container blocking with reason codes, and a gate-out PDF with photos and signature.
Yard
Every yard visit anchors to a single dossier with one unit and one paying party, so every move ties to a billing line. Rule-based placement by section, row, column and height, with commodity-based storage rules and customer-specific zones driving automatic fee calculation. Crane, reach stacker and team assignments filter to each handheld automatically.
Train
A wagon-by-wagon loading view guides every position, with checks for non-craneable units and a loading proposal engine that accounts for unit type, weight, height, platform and wagon. Weight, axle, DG separation per RID, customs and gauge checks re-run on every change. Ground checkers verify wagon checkout on handhelds, which triggers LSEOP to Infrabel or Binias and the CIM e-waybill.
WHERE TMS MEETS TOS
Train planning and terminal planning in one booking logic.
Most terminals plan trains in one system and the terminal in another. With Rail-Flow, TMS train and departure slots and TOS truck, ramp and crane slots are managed as one booking logic, so a booking made in Transport Management appears straight away in the live train view of the TOS.
Auto-allocation
An allocation engine matches units to wagons by penalty ranking and respects weight, length and axle limits per leg. Planners review the proposal instead of building every train by hand.
One-click bottleneck fixes
When capacity runs short, the TOS shows the bottleneck and the options: shift units to the next train, trigger an inter-terminal transport, request extra crane slots or add wagons, each in one click.
Compliance in the background
Every change re-runs the weight, axle, DG separation, customs and gauge checks automatically, so a replanned train is still a compliant train. This matters most at seaport terminals with tight crane and move budgets.
TERMINAL OPERATING SYSTEM
Bring your hardest move. We will show you how the TOS runs it.
See the TOS handle your own gate, yard and train flows in 30 minutes, with a terminal operations specialist.
KEY FEATURES
Explore the core capabilities of the TOS
Main feature areas anchor everything the TOS does on a real terminal floor. Click through to see each in detail.
Every truck through the gate, every dossier closed.
Truck Check-In & Check-Out
At most terminals, the day is won or lost at the gate, when trucks stack up, the whole yard slows down. Truck Check-In & Check-Out replaces paperwork and radio calls with one guided workflow on a tablet.
With TOS, drivers arrive notified, with a booking reference and PIN. The crew confirms the unit and weight, photographs a walk-around, and the system assigns a slot. The weighbridge reading lands on the dossier automatically, and a signature completes it. Check-out reverses the same steps, with every move leaving a signed, photographed record.
From truck to wagon, every move has a paying party.
Yard Placement & Move Jobs
The yard is where a terminal earns or loses its productivity, and running it on memory and radio invites rehandling. Yard Placement & Move Jobs puts it on one board instead. As units arrive, TOS assigns each a slot by rule, keeping like with like and fast-movers within reach. Every reposition, load, and unload then becomes a job sent straight to the right operator, while planners watch the whole yard fill up and empty in real time.
Right wagon, right slot, every unit checked.
Train Load Planning & Wagon Check
This is where a rail terminal proves it's more than a container yard. Before a train arrives, TOS already knows its make-up from EDI and proposes the best-fit wagon for each unit, while every load is checked for weight, dangerous goods, and gauge so nothing unsafe reaches the track. On departure, each wagon is inspected and signed out, and the final composition travels on with the train, planning a pure container system simply can't do.
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ALL FEATURES
Every step on the terminal, on one platform.
The core processes in the order they run on the terminal, followed by the functions around them: customs, reefer, invoicing, EDI and reporting.
Booking Overview
All bookings for your terminal in one view, including those coming from Rail-Flow TMS. You know which units, trains and trucks are coming before they arrive.
Train Planning
Plan trains, departure slots and terminal capacity on one booking logic. Units are allocated to wagons automatically, with weight, length and axle limits checked in the background.
Train Composition
The train composition list arrives by EDI, so wagons and units are known before arrival. Checkers see the wagon order in the mobile app and can adjust it on departure. Every change is updated instantly across the platform.
Wagon Inspection
Checkers inspect incoming wagons directly in the TOS mobile app, with photos, timestamp and signature for every wagon.
FastGate
Gate check-in in the TOS mobile app. Driver, licence plate and booking reference are validated on the device, with pictures from your video gate or taken by the checker.
Driver App
The Rail-Flow app for drivers of own and external hauliers. Pre-check-in with booking reference and PIN, so trucks arrive expected.
Load Unit Capture
Containers, swap bodies and trailers are captured with unit number, weight and seals, and bound to the dossier from the first scan.
Damage Capture
Step-by-step photo inspection of units and wagons, confirmed by Sign-on-Glass. This gives you complete proof per unit and fewer damage disputes.
Yard & Handling
Move jobs go straight to reach stackers and cranes, and rule-based yard placement keeps every unit traceable. At any time you see which load units are booked, which are on the terminal and which are already loaded on the train.
EDI & Integrations
Native EDIFACT covers IFTMIN, CODECO, COREOR, COPARN, and IFTMCS, with CEDEX for M&R, and APICS for Antwerp and Portbase for Rotterdam are already integrated.
Customs & DG
Customs flags sit at both the unit and booking level, required documents block release until they're complete, and RID checks run automatically for rail dangerous goods.
Reefer Monitoring
Plug-in and plug-out events register with timestamps as they happen, ground checkers walk sequential zone rounds each shift, and the customer gets the temperature report on the schedule they expect.
Invoicing & Rates
Storage fees calculate against free days and tiered rates, self-billing runs in each customer's preferred format including PEPPOL, OPA / SOPA decouples operational from billing client, and invoice templates configure in the UI.
Roles, Audit & Reporting
Role-based access covers gate, planner, M&R, finance, and ground checker, every unit and move carries a full audit trail, and KPI dashboards report gate throughput and dwell time.
DISCOVER OUR TERMINAL OPERATING SYSTEM
Book a TOS demo tailored to your terminal.
A personalised 30-minute demo with one of our TOS experts. See how the TOS runs your gate, yard and train flows on your own data, and get a tailored quote in the same call.
Michael Bott
Head of Sales
+49 69 96 75 97 68
m.bott@rail-flow.com
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about the TOS. Anything missing? Just ask during the demo.
Have a question that's not covered here? Reach out and we'll get back to you within one business day.
Rail-Flow TOS is a terminal operating system for combined transport terminals, inland hubs and port handling companies. Gate, yard, train handling, customs and billing run in one continuous dossier on one cloud platform, from truck or train arrival to departure. Data is entered once and is available at every step, with no re-keying between systems.
It is built for terminals and fast to implement. Your team works in a mobile app directly on the terminal floor. Train planning and terminal planning run on one booking logic with Rail-Flow TMS, so rail capacity and terminal capacity are always planned together. The modular setup lets you start with what you need today and add modules as your operation grows. Across its platform, Rail-Flow has already built more than 200 interfaces, so connecting to your existing systems is proven practice.
Checkers, gate staff and equipment operators use the TOS mobile app on tablets and smartphones. They capture units, damages and wagon inspections with photos, confirm every step with a Sign-on-Glass signature and receive move jobs directly on the device. At the gate, FastGate handles check-in in the TOS mobile app: driver, licence plate and booking reference are validated on the device, with pictures from your video gate or taken by the checker. Every move is documented with a timestamp, photo and signature, so you have complete proof per unit.
A first set of modules on a single terminal goes live within weeks. Multi-terminal rollouts with EDI connections and customer-specific invoicing follow in clear, planned stages. Most terminals start with gate and yard, see results quickly and then extend step by step.
Yes. Rail-Flow TOS is modular: gate, yard, train operations, customs, dangerous goods, reefer monitoring and invoicing can be combined to fit your terminal. All modules share the same data and the same dossier, so every new module plugs straight into your running operation.
Combined transport and inland intermodal terminals, municipal port and handling companies, container depots, multi-cargo terminals with rail handling, and chemical-park rail terminals. It is also a strong fit for seaport terminals, where integrated truck, ramp and crane slot planning makes the biggest difference.
MORE PRODUCTS
Explore the rest of the platform.
The TOS is one part of an order-to-cash platform built for rail and intermodal. These modules connect to it directly.
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Transport Management
Plan, dispatch, track and invoice every transport. Bookings made in Transport Management appear straight away in the live train view of the TOS, with no double entry.
Fleet Management
Manage wagons, locomotives and rolling stock with full lifecycle visibility and telematics integrations. Connects with the TOS for inbound and outbound wagon movements.
Offer Management & CRM
Manage customer relationships, build structured offers and track every deal from first request to signed contract.