#yard management software

[conmoveio]

What is an Empty Yard Management System, and How Conmove Made It Easier?

n the digitised fast-paced world of logistics and supply chain management, effective yard operations play a crucial role. One significant aspect is managing empty container yards—spaces designed for storing and handling empty containers. An Empty Yard Management System (EYMS) is a dedicated solution designed to optimize the utilization, movement, and storage of these containers within a yard.

Understanding Empty Yard Management Systems:

An Empty Yard Management System incorporates technology to streamline operations in container yards. It provides real-time visibility into yard activities, enabling better decision-making. Key features typically include:

Container Tracking: The process involves tracking the location of every empty container within the yard.

Inventory Management: Provides detailed reporting on the availability of container status.

Gate Management:This process involves managing the inflow and outflow of containers efficiently.

Space Optimization: This ensures maximum utilization of yard space to reduce idle time and costs.

Automation: Reduces manual interventions by automating routine tasks like container allocation and scheduling.

Why is Yard Management Crucial?

Efficient yard management is crucial for maintaining a smooth supply chain. Poorly managed yards lead to

• Delays

• Increased costs

• Operational bottlenecks.

With growing global trade, managing empty yards has become increasingly complex, making it vital for logistics companies to adopt advanced systems.

Challenges in Traditional Container Yard Management

Limited Visibility: Traditional methods rely on manual tracking, making it difficult to get real-time data.

Space Wastage: Without proper planning, yards often face underutilized or overcrowded spaces.

Operational Delays: Manual operations often result in slower gate processes, causing delays in container dispatch and delivery.

High operational Costs: Inefficient yard operations increase labour, fuel, and maintenance costs.

How Conmove Simplifies Empty Yard Management?

Conmove offers an innovative Empty Yard Management System designed to address the challenges faced by modern container yards. Here’s how Conmove makes yard management easier:

Real-Time Container Visibility

Conmove provides real-time tracking of empty containers, giving yard operators instant access to container locations and statuses. This reduces search time and enhances operational efficiency.

AI-Powered Space Optimization

Using advanced algorithms, Conmove’s yard management system optimizes container placement to maximize yard space. This minimizes container moves and improves overall yard utilization.

Automated Gate Operations

Conmove’s system automates gate entries and exits, significantly reducing wait times and manual paperwork. This ensures a seamless flow of containers in and out of the yard.

Data-Driven Insights

The system generates comprehensive reports and analytics, helping managers make informed decisions. From forecasting container demand to identifying operational bottlenecks, Conmove empowers businesses to stay ahead.

Seamless Integration

Conmove’s Empty Yard Management System integrates effortlessly with other supply chain and logistics software. This creates a unified platform for managing end-to-end operations.

Effective management of empty container yards is critical for logistics companies aiming to stay competitive in today’s fast-paced environment. Conmove’s Empty Yard Management System offers a comprehensive solution, empowering businesses to optimize their operations, reduce costs, and enhance service quality.

[sonartechnology]

Yard Management Software Trends and Innovations

In the fast-paced world of logistics and supply chain management, yard operations play a crucial role in ensuring the efficient movement of goods and materials. As technology continues to evolve, yard management software has become an indispensable tool for optimizing yard operations and enhancing overall supply chain performance. In this article, we'll explore the latest trends and innovations in yard management software, shedding light on what's next for yard operations optimization. 

1. Adoption of IoT Sensors for Real-Time Asset Tracking: 

One of the most significant trends in yard management software is the widespread adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) sensors for real-time asset tracking. These sensors can be deployed on trucks, trailers, containers, and other yard assets to provide accurate location data and status updates in real-time. By leveraging IoT technology, yard management software enables better visibility into yard operations, improves asset utilization, and reduces dwell times. As IoT sensors become more affordable and accessible, we can expect to see wider adoption across industries, leading to greater efficiency and productivity in yard management. 

2. Integration of AI and Machine Learning for Predictive Analytics: 

Another emerging trend in yard management software is the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms for predictive analytics. By analyzing historical data and real-time inputs, AI-powered yard management software can anticipate future events and trends, such as peak traffic times, equipment maintenance needs, and delivery schedules. This predictive capability enables proactive decision-making and resource allocation, helping organizations optimize yard operations, minimize delays, and improve overall efficiency. As AI and machine learning technologies continue to mature, we can expect to see even more sophisticated predictive analytics capabilities integrated into yard management software solutions. 

3. Expansion of Mobile Applications for On-the-Go Yard Management: 

Mobile applications have become increasingly popular for on-the-go yard management, allowing users to access yard management software from anywhere, at any time. Mobile apps enable yard managers, drivers, and other stakeholders to view real-time data, update statuses, and communicate with each other seamlessly, enhancing collaboration and decision-making in yard operations. As mobile technology continues to advance, we can expect to see more features and functionalities added to yard management mobile apps, making them indispensable tools for optimizing yard operations and improving supply chain visibility. 

4. Embrace of Cloud-Based Solutions for Scalability and Flexibility: 

Cloud-based yard management software solutions are gaining traction in the industry due to their scalability, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness. Unlike traditional on-premises software, cloud-based solutions offer easy deployment, automatic updates, and seamless integration with other systems, making them ideal for organizations of all sizes. Cloud-based yard management software enables real-time collaboration, data sharing, and accessibility from any device with an internet connection, empowering organizations to streamline yard operations and adapt to changing business needs more efficiently. As the demand for cloud-based solutions continues to grow, we can expect to see further innovation and advancements in this space. 

5. Focus on Sustainability and Environmental Impact: 

With increasing awareness of environmental issues and sustainability concerns, yard management software providers are placing a greater emphasis on eco-friendly solutions and practices. This includes features such as route optimization to minimize fuel consumption, idle reduction to lower emissions, and paperless documentation to reduce waste. Additionally, yard management software can help organizations track and report on their carbon footprint, enabling them to make informed decisions and implement strategies for reducing environmental impact. As sustainability becomes a higher priority for businesses worldwide, we can expect yard management software to play a significant role in promoting eco-friendly practices and reducing the logistics industry's environmental footprint. 

Conclusion: 

Yard management software continues to evolve rapidly, driven by technological advancements, changing market dynamics, and evolving customer needs. By embracing trends such as IoT sensors, AI-powered analytics, mobile applications, cloud-based solutions, and sustainability initiatives, organizations can unlock new levels of efficiency, productivity, and sustainability in their yard operations. As we look ahead, the future of yard management software is bright, with continued innovation and transformation shaping the landscape of yard operations optimization. By staying informed and embracing these trends, organizations can position themselves for success in the dynamic world of logistics and supply chain management. 

[nec-india]

Real-time visibility is ensured with the help of a software solution so that potential issues can be identified. A yard management software solution is designed to efficiently oversee and optimize the movement, storage, and organization of trucks, trailers, containers, and other assets within a distribution center.

[acstechnology]

Making the Right 3PL Warehouse Management Software Decision to Navigate Efficiency

In the complex landscape of logistics, the role of Third-Party Logistics (3PL) companies is pivotal, and the right 3PL Warehouse Management Software (WMS) can make all the difference. This blog serves as a guide for businesses looking to optimize their logistics operations by exploring 3PL Warehouse Management Software.

Understanding the Crucial Elements of 3PL Warehouse Management Software

1. Inventory Visibility and Control

One of the key features to look for in 3PL Warehouse Management Software is robust inventory visibility and control. The software should provide real-time insights into inventory levels, locations, and movements, empowering 3PL companies to make informed decisions and optimize storage space.

2. Scalability for Growing Operations

Choosing scalable 3PL Warehouse Management Software is imperative for businesses with growing operations. The software should seamlessly adapt to increasing order volumes and expanding logistics requirements, ensuring that 3PL companies can scale their services without compromising efficiency.

3PL Warehouse Management Software and Last Mile Transportation Integration

1. Streamlining Last Mile Logistics

Integrating 3PL Warehouse Management Software with Last Mile Transportation solutions enhances the efficiency of last-mile logistics. This integration facilitates real-time communication between warehouses and delivery vehicles, optimizing routes, minimizing delays, and ultimately improving the speed and accuracy of last-mile deliveries.

2. Enhanced Visibility Across the Supply Chain

The synergy between 3PL Warehouse Management Software and Last Mile Transportation solutions provides enhanced visibility across the entire supply chain. From warehouse fulfillment to the final customer delivery, businesses can track shipments in real time, proactively address issues, and deliver a seamless customer experience.

Choosing the Right Yard Management Solutions

1. Optimizing Yard Operations

Yard Management Solutions are integral to the effective functioning of 3PL operations. The right 3PL Warehouse Management Software should include features that optimize yard operations, including efficient trailer and dock management, reducing idle times, and improving overall logistics flow.

2. Compliance with Industry Standards

When evaluating 3PL Warehouse Management Software, businesses should ensure that the chosen solution complies with industry standards for yard management. This includes adherence to safety regulations, environmental standards, and any specific requirements relevant to the industries served by the 3PL company.

Conclusion: Paving the Way for Logistics Excellence

In conclusion, the selection of 3PL Warehouse Management Software is a strategic decision that shapes the efficiency and success of logistics operations. By prioritizing features such as inventory visibility, scalability, and seamless integration with Last Mile Transportation and Yard Management Solutions, businesses pave the way for logistics excellence. The right 3PL Warehouse Management Software not only optimizes current operations but also positions 3PL companies for future growth. As logistics continue to evolve, embracing technology that enhances visibility, control, and overall efficiency becomes a key driver of success in the competitive landscape. Choose wisely, and let your 3PL Warehouse Management Software be the cornerstone of a logistics strategy that stands out in a dynamic and demanding market.

[abhigroup1]

Ash Logistics and Traders Pvt Ltd is one of the Leading Logistics company in India that offers Cost-Effective, Customized and end to end containerized exim transportation to 800+ growing National and International Industries. Containerization in transportation has revolutionized global trade by making the process more efficient, secure, and cost-effective. To know more : https://ash-logistics.com Contact us : +91 95790 95790 E-mail Id : business@abhigroup.co.in

[tmsfretron]

Best Yard Management Software

The best yard management software is a game-changer for businesses reliant on efficient logistics and supply chain operations. It seamlessly orchestrates the movement of goods within a facility, optimizing resource allocation, reducing congestion, and enhancing overall productivity.

This software leverages real-time data, such as GPS tracking and RFID technology, to provide instant visibility into yard operations. It streamlines tasks like trailer management, dock scheduling, and inventory tracking, allowing for better decision-making and cost savings. Moreover, it offers predictive analytics and automation capabilities, enabling companies to proactively address issues and avoid delays.

In essence, the best yard management software revolutionizes the way businesses manage their yards, enhancing efficiency, reducing operational costs, and ultimately boosting customer satisfaction.

[cozy-writes-things]

Electric Love: Pt. 1

Edgar [Electric Dreams 1984] x Gn!Reader

All of my fics so far have followed the same universe, so I thought it's only logical that I post an introduction to that universe.

The old man peering at you through puffy eyes and age seemed to have an air shrouded in mystery. His thin, white wisps of hair seemed to stagnate in place as he adjusted his button down.

“This old thing has been around for years now,” he gruffed—an unreadable tone—as his hand encased the yellowed plastic, “I don’t remember what happened to it; must have dropped it, or let some animal chip away at it.”

The dingy, vintage computer before your eyes surely had not been dropped, nor torn into by some animal. It sat upon his countertop completely destroyed; as if it had burst and shattered from the inside out, ripping the glass into jagged shards. You swallowed this thought; this was no time to debate the old man. He seemed to be quite senile as it was and pushing any further seemed like a fruitless effort. Instead, you stretched a thin smile his way, pursing your lips in thought.

“You actually think you can get this thing to work again?” he queried, raising a salt and pepper brow at your expression.

“Well, I’m not sure, but… I’d like to try,” what you hadn’t told him, however, was your infatuation with electronics. Ever since completing your bachelor’s in computer science, you have been tinkering away at many different projects in between jobs, building custom PCs, fixing old Game Boys, and many others. This little computer was an addition to your ever growing collection.

It came from a company you had never heard of before, only to learn it had become defunct in the 80s due to some inexplicable software issues in their products. This certainly intrigued you, as prodding into its code could provide some useful insight to real, vintage tech that just doesn’t exist anymore. But, that’s only if you manage to fix the heap of destruction limply hung before you.

The old man stiffened at your words, ever so slightly, before rattling out, “Well, if you do, don’t bring it anywhere near me. I can’t stand all this tech, and gadgets, and whatnot. Pisses me off.”

“Right,” you interjected, knowing people like him tend to go on long, anti-future, anti-technology rants, trying desperately to beat him to the punch, “well, how much do you want for it?”

He stilled, contemplating for a moment, “twenty-five should be fine.”

“Perfect,” you chirped, padding against your pockets and bag searching for some cash. Pulling out your wallet, you waded around the folds, only to find a crumpled up and faded ten dollar bill and a debit card.

“Ah, I’ve only got a ten…”

He rolled his eyes, “of course you do, you got PayPal, then?” Your cheeks flushed a burning red hot from embarrassment, “ah, yes, I do-”

“Great, just pay me that way,” he bent down and scribbled something messily onto a note, “here’s my information. I made sure to set this up for people like you, you know. Nobody carries cash anymore, or so my grandson tells me.”

You force out a nervous chuckle.

“That’s certainly true… these days, ah…” you unlocked your phone and began inputting his information into PayPal before pressing send on the digital payment, “okay, it went through.”

“Perfect. You need help getting this hunk of junk to your car?”

“No, I should be fine, thank you, sir,” you croak as you heave the broken computer into your arms, heading towards his door.

“Well, come back if you want to buy anything else. Nobody goes to yard sales anymore, it seems.”

You can only turn your head and chuckle at his quip, before awkwardly dashing out of his apartment and towards your car. The dampened asphalt from the rain squelched under your toes as you lugged the large piece of tech to the passenger side.

“There,” you whispered, to nobody in particular, as you awkwardly buckled the computer in place, “hopefully you won’t fall that way.”

And just like that, you were off, headed towards home to begin the massive project that was repairing this obsolete device.

“What to do with you?”

You groaned as you thumped the solid mass of plastic and metal against your desk, “you’re incredibly broken.”

First and foremost, it needs a screen replacement. Which is easier said than done. Especially considering the company who manufactured these things hasn’t existed in 40 years. Unfortunately, a close replica will have to do. Maybe you could even upgrade its screen with something with a bit more prowess.

Poking inside of its components seemed to tell a different story. Miraculously, none of the motherboards were damaged with the same ferocity the screen had been. There seemed to be some sort of dried, caked on water damage of some sort, that left a sticky residue, but otherwise, everything seemed to be relatively intact. The yellowed casing could use a wipe down from the thick layer of starchy dust, but it seemed to hold its original shape with surprising ease.

Following a closer inspection, it seemed as though the glass screen, and the components in charge of illuminating it, were the only things in need of replacing. A quick browse on Amazon, some tech forums, and a post on Reddit should be a good start in finding a usable replacement for this sad, broken gadget.

For now, however, you get some isopropyl alcohol and a soft bristled toothbrush to chip away at the water damage on the motherboards in hopes of restoring the electrical connections. You were quite hopeful that you’d get this little guy up and running just as soon as you could find the right parts. It’s only a matter of time.

[3ofpents]

Fresno Nightcrawler Houndstooth // Fabric Design for @shapeshiftersvt and The Cryptid Collection

Remember way back a few weeks ago when I posted the Squonk poster and I said that once I'd designed the fabric to go along with it I'd start posting the fabric designs here? Well guess what! It's time!

For those who don't remember or who didn't know, I am the co-owner, site manager, and graphic designer for @shapeshiftersvt. 2024 marks our 10th anniversary and we wanted to do something big and special and new to mark the occasion and my partner, co-owner, head tailor, fashion designer, and founder, Eli, pitched a fashion line themed around cryptids. We call it The Cryptid Collection and it features six of our and the internet's favorite cryptids: The Fresno Nightcrawler, Mothman, the Jackalope, the Jersey Devil, Champ, and the Squonk.

My parts of the collection were designing the posters, and creating fabric designs for our very own, truly Shapeshifters designed chest binders and sports bras. But since we utilized Spoonflower to have those fabrics printed, they're also available through the Spoonflower marketplace for anyone to buy for their own sewing projects.

And now that all of the fabric designs are done and uploaded and proofed and listed, I, as promised, am posting them here to talk a bit more in-depth about them, the thoughts and inspirations behind them, and the design process.

Starting with the Fresno Nightcrawler.

Part of the reason I'm starting with the Fresno Nightcrawler is because this was the very first design that I finished. When we were planning out the fabrics, it was the most solid design concept I had that wasn't just adapting the poster design to fabric (mostly because ... I hadn't done the poster yet). It was the first one I really came up with, the one I was most excited about, and the one that pretty much stayed the same from concept to execution.

I love houndstooth. Which is weird to say when I don't think I've ever owned a single garment or accessory in with a houndstooth pattern? But I do, I love it. I love the teeny tiny classic version of the pattern; I love a blown-up graphic version of the pattern; I love plays and variations on it. So when I was trying to brainstorm what kind of fabric pattern I could make inspired by a creature with such a simple shape whose only colors were white and black, the idea came pretty quickly: A houndstooth. Or a Nightcrawlertooth, if you will. It was a trick, though, and a real learning experience, especially with this being my first design.

Getting a pattern to repeat smoothly is a skill unto itself. Basically you have what's called a tile, and the tile contains the part of the pattern that you want to repeat. Then, when your pattern is created, the original tile just gets essentially copy-pasted over and over so 1) you don't have to draw the whole yard of fabric, and 2)all of the repeated parts of the design are identical. But by doing it this way, you have seams you need to take into consideration. If you think of putting the pattern together, it's sort of like making a basic quilt: You start with one square (or rectangle), then attach four more squares to each side, and then just keep doing that. Each one of those seams (top, bottom, left, right) is a place where the pattern might not match up, which means when it's applied to a yard of fabric, it's not going to look like a smooth, seamless pattern.

Of course there's ways to avoid this altogether. If you're doing a simple stripe, using the line tool in your drawing software will keep your stripe a consistent thickness, and holding SHIFT while you draw it will keep the line straight. Or, even easier, you can create a pattern where the part that repeats doesn't straddle a seam; like a polkadot pattern, where the dot(s) can be centered on the tile and seams only cut through a solid background.

The trouble with a houndstooth, though, is that not only does the tile need to repeat, it's made up of repeating figures that interlock. I can't just center the white Nightcrawler on the tile and call it a day, because then the black Nightcrawler straddles the seam. On top of that, they needed to be shaped in such a way that the negative space between the white Nightcrawlers left a shape that was also recognizable as a Nightcrawler and similar enough to the white one that the pattern is mostly seamless.

I fully admit that I was not able to do this on my own. Enter: Eli. Eli is, among other things, a math nerd who enjoys an excuse to break out the graph paper. They found a tutorial online and got to graphing and shaping and, in just a couple of hours, had gotten the shapes down. I took that tile, illustrated it, cleaned up the seams (shoutout to Eli for also finding an easier way to do this than just manually copy-pasting), and voila! A Fresno Nightcrawler houndstooth.

Now, you might look at that image up there and say, "Well that's all well and good, Pents, but they're kind of blobby and the lines are wobbly and it's all a little uneven." To which I say ... yeah, that's true. It's also kind of intentional. Like, I'm not gonna sit here and claim I got the basic pattern done and wasn't exhausted. But also I could've left it and come back to it the next day to clean up the lines and shapes a bit more, make everything really smooth and even. But, like. Look at this guy.

He's just a weird kinda blobby little dude. So I left the pattern kinda weird and blobby.

Even if I'd cleaned it, it's such a blobby little shape that's so at odds with the classic houndstooth that's all straight lines and sharp angles. So I made a deliberate choice to not polish it up. To kind of lean into the kodama vibes:

I am really so so proud of and pleased with this design. It came out almost exactly how I pictured it; it was really the most true design collaboration between Eli and I; and I'm just so pleased, after a lifetime of being a houndstooth lover, to now also have designed a houndstooth.

If you'd like a custom-sized, handmade, made-to-order binder or sports bra in this houndstooth like the one in the photos, you can find those listings (as well as the poster listing) here, on the Shapeshifters website. There are three pattern size options, the classic teeny tiny version; a somewhat bigger medium size; and a super graphic large size. Our binders are the most comfortable and effective on the market thanks to our finely graded internal sizing system. Because we're a small operation that makes every garment to order, both our binders and sports bras are highly customizable, and can be made to ALL measurements with flat pricing across sizes.

If you'd like to purchase the fabric yourself for your own sewing projects, you can order it through our Spoonflower shop, where we have it listed in the same three pattern sizes.

[fivenightsatfreddysfanfiction]

It Is A Mystery

Gregory and Cassie start looking into the events of 1987 to figure out the strange anomalies in the animatronic hard drives.

---------------------------------------

.

Lunchtime at school meant Cassie could find Gregory sitting under a tree in the yard if he wasn’t at their usual table. Her Roxy lunchbox swung at her side as she jogged over to see him, sighing at the sight of him pressing his forehead to his knees. The headaches were definitely a serious thing for him but no amount of doctor visits or nurse checks could come up with a reason for why they kept happening. All anyone could do was keep a supply of medicine for him to take to make the pain dull.

Cassie had taken it upon herself to keep a bottle of headache pills and a few small water bottles stocked in her backpack and hip pouch. The number of times she had to dip into the supply for him always made her worried. How much longer could this go on before something more dire than just a headache happened? When would someone figure out what was wrong and help him?

“Did you manage to eat something?” she asked, sitting down by Gregory and swinging her bag around to get to the medicine bottle and water.

���Few bites,” the boy replied with a faint groan, his hands clutching at his head and rubbing at his scalp through his hair. “Hurts and itches at the same time. It sucks.”

“Maybe you’re getting memories back?” Cassie suggested, taking Gregory’s wrist to free one hand and press a couple capsules to his palm. He lifted his face from his legs to flash her a grateful smile before tossing the medicine into his mouth. She passed him a water bottle to wash them down. “Like in the movies, where people get flashbacks of their past and it looks like it hurts?”

“Not getting anything,” Gregory mumbled, sitting back with a thud of his back against the tree trunk, his eyes closed as he kept one hand pressed to his forehead. “Been thinking about that code and it hurts,” he sighed and Cassie settled down on the grass beside him, her shoulder pressed to his while she opened her lunchbox and took out her sandwich.

“I bet. Those two hard drives looked aaaancient,” she declared between bites. The original Freddy and Friends band had four animatronics, so Gregory had collected half of them already. Just two more to go and then... Then what? What did the security puppet expect Gregory to do with them? He was just a kid. “So what’s the code say?” she asked.

“There’s more than just the regular animatronic programming in there. That stuff was written by whoever built the Fazband,” Gregory began, cracking one eye open just enough to see what she was doing before closing it again, “On top of it is some security software that looks like a full override of the hardware that cuts off software control for a little while. The signature on it is from Mr. Fitzgerald’s dad.”

“The guy you did your school report on? Jonathan Fitzgerald?” Cassie asked in surprise, “I thought he was only doing the software for the Toy Animatronics. How’d his stuff get into the originals?”

“I bugged Alex for a crash course on invasive programming and it kinda looks like that,” Gregory explained, a small frown on his face as his brow furrowed, “It’s a security program but written like a virus, installing and burying itself and making it super hard for anyone who doesn’t know what they’re doing to pull it out. There must have been a shared network in Freddy’s for the Toy Animatronics and the software was stored on it, infecting the originals.”

“But why?” Cassie murmured, thinking over what such a program could be used for. Control the hardware without the software having input? Sounded like manual control. Why would anyone want to have a built-in software switch to have someone take manual control of the animatronics on demand? Wasn’t the regular performing software good enough to do its job? So many questions, no wonder Gregory was having more headaches lately.

“I think the reason is the other batch of coding in the drive,” Gregory replied, opening his eyes to stare at her in faint confusion and concern. “It’s a mess of structure that doesn’t make any sense to me but it looks a lot like what’s in Freddy’s code.” He tapped on his Glamrock Freddy lunchbox and Cassie squinted at it, thinking.

When did Gregory see Glamrock Freddy’s software?

“So if the same kind of weird coding is in both of them, maybe what it is..,” Gregory trailed off quietly, his gaze looking distant and thoughtful. He almost looked sad. Cassie watched him with a tilt of her head, waiting for him to continue his words and then giving a little huff when it seemed like he was lost in his head again.

That seemed to be happening a lot lately. Gregory would just zone out with that thoughtful look, like something was on his mind that he was trying to figure out and whatever it was, it was something sad. Sad memories coming back? He never said, and when he shook himself out of it he couldn’t explain what it was he was thinking about.

“What is it?” Cassie coaxed, hoping that maybe this time she’ll get an answer. Never did before but she was nothing if not persistent. Her dad was like that, kept his focus on whatever specific job he did for Freddy’s up until he just disappeared.

Gregory’s mouth thinned, like he was keeping his words in, and he looked at her with an odd expression. She’d seen it before on the adults in her life, that look of them wondering how much she should be allowed to know about something serious. She hated it when she understood what that meant and she hated it now on her friend’s face. Cassie scowled back at him.

“I don’t know stuff, but I’m not stupid,” she told him, taking his favorite phrase and throwing it back, “What is it and why does it make you sad and how does it involve Glamrock Freddy and how do you even know what’s in his code?!”

“Man, you sure don’t need air when you get all huffy like that, huh?” Gregory remarked with a nervous grin, wincing as though caught in a lie. “I, uh, forgot you don’t know about..." He opened his lunchbox and grabbed his half-eaten meal, a small container with a couple slices of homemade pizza, a pack of cookies and a juice box. He hurriedly ate a few more bites, likely stalling, while Cassie just narrowed her eyes.

She’d glare him into submission one of these days. Grandma said she had her mom’s look for getting her dad to ‘fess up to whatever silly thing he was hiding. If it worked for her mom on her dad, then it’d work for her on Gregory. He seemed the kind to fold pretty easy anyway to her. She’d die of embarrassment first before admitting that it kinda felt nice to know Gregory would rail against everyone else but her.

“Okay, but you gotta promise not to tell just about anyone else,” Gregory finally began with a heavy sigh, “Cuz this sounds crazy but trust me, it’s not.” Cassie nodded, giving her most serious expression to show she could be trusted while holding in a squeal of relief that he was finally sharing more of what was going on. “Huh, how to explain this,” he muttered, “Memories, the soul, emotions, they’re all connected.”

“Sounds spiritual,” Cassie agreed with a slow nod.

“But it can be transformed into physical and digital,” Gregory pointed out, frowning at his pizza slice, “All of it or some of it, it can get put into objects and those objects become ‘haunted’. And the stuff those memories and souls and emotions become when it starts moving around like that is called Remnant.”

Cassie frowned as she turned that over in her head. The spiritual being put into physical and digital forms. So a soul could be made physical? Or put into something that wasn’t a human body? Memories could be made digital? Like files in a computer? Or... She blinked as the thought suddenly clicked into place. “Animatronic programming,” she whispered and looked at Gregory in disbelief, “You think this Remnant stuff, people’s memories and souls, got turned into animatronic programming?!”

He nodded and he didn’t look like he was joking or trying to pull a prank for once. He looked like he really believed a soul got put into each of the original Fazband members and got translated into some bizarre code. Cassie remembered how her grandma liked to say things made with love helped spread that love because people could feel that love in those objects. That haunted sites were places where the ghosts and spirits were bound because of how they died or something about the place called them there. Was there actually something to that?

“Wh-how did people’s souls and memories end up in the animatronics?” she asked in alarm. Gregory held up his fingers in a ‘V’ shape.

“There’s two variations of that Remnant programming,” he told her, “One set looks like it was self-writing, like the Remnant came from the animatronic itself. Like maybe it was already alive in its own way?”

“It was sentient?” Cassie caught on and blinked, “Oh! Like the story of the Velveteen Rabbit! A toy that was loved so much that it became ‘real’ and ‘alive’; people really loved Freddy and Friends back then, so did all that love poured into them make them alive?”

“Yeah, that’s what I think. Love from kids and parents, love from the person who built them, it became Remnant and made them aware enough that they started writing their own code, making their own memories and identities,” Gregory agreed and lowered one finger. “But then there’s traces of another set of Remnant programming, and it looked broken, like whatever put it there was suddenly added and then very suddenly taken away some time later. And when that Remnant left, it tore out the code that it had translated into.”

“And what did that Remnant do?” Cassie asked, “Make different memories?” That didn’t seem right. If the animatronic was already ‘alive’ with its own Remnant, then having outside Remnant suddenly get put into it almost felt like... “It got possessed?” she realized in horror, “But how?!”

“Bingo. Those traces were just enough to tell me that the other Remnant hooked into hardware control,” Gregory told her around his last mouthful of pizza, “The possessing stuff could take control of the animatronic and move them around, and I think Jonathan’s software was created to cut off that control and give it back to the security guard just long enough to get them put somewhere safe.” He tossed the crust back into his lunchbox, hurriedly wiping his hands off on the grass before digging out his phone. “I need to ask Mr. Fitzgerald to give me access to the Afton Files again but I could at least look up what happened to the old Freddy’s Pizza,” he said in a rush, “He mentioned it when he said he had beef with them over his dad being accused of something he didn’t do, something called the Missing Children Incident. The guy who looks after the place also mentioned it to me; families don’t come back to a place where kids vanish.” Cassie pulled out her own phone, tapping away on the screen to open her browser and do the same search.

Her phone was soon covered in headlines and articles from the past, a scandal in the late 1980’s, children going missing, declared deceased based on the M.O. of the suspect that was arrested and convicted, and the pizzeria’s business declining over time until it closed and reopened with the original Fazband. It still didn’t do well, as the animatronics smelled and looked terrible, as though they weren’t kept well and something was rotten around them. Cassie covered her mouth in horror, her stomach wanting to rebel against her recently eaten lunch.

Did this mean that the outside Remnant were the souls of those missing kids? Where did they go then? Gregory said they were attached suddenly and then some time later they were torn out.

“The Five Missing Children,” Gregory murmured, looking over her shoulder at her phone, and her face warmed at the closeness. He pointed down at her screen. “Look. It happened on the same day as the Bite of ‘87.”

“The what of what?” she asked flatly. What kind of dumb phrase was that? How was it connected to the Missing Children Incident besides the shared day?

Gregory showed his phone beside hers, a grainy photo of a kid dressed like a pirate grinning in a scanned newspaper article. “Here. ‘Bite of ‘87 Victim makes miraculous recovery’,” he said with a grim tone, “And look at the victim’s name. Michael Elizabeth Schmidt.”

“Mike Schmidt, the guard who potentially had something Fazbear Entertainment wants,” Cassie connected with wide eyes, “He got hurt the same day the Missing Children Incident happened?”

“Yeah, from the articles it seemed like the damage from the bite was supposed to have killed him. But it didn’t,” Gregory muttered, “I think the killer who got the other kids was also trying to kill him but he managed to pull through. And the kids who did die ended up as Remnant attached to the Fazband and generated that extra programming that let them take control of the animatronics.”

“Five missing kids,” Cassie repeated, reading the article again and frowning. Wait. “Five kids died, so that’s five souls or Remnant or whatever. But there’s only four animatronics in the original group. If all of them got one kid’s soul each, where did the fifth one go?”

Gregory froze beside her and she looked up to see his face pale suddenly. He moved away from her in a rush, hunching over in the grass as he stared blankly at the ground. The movement was so sudden, it nearly toppled Cassie over but she was just as quick in scrambling to her knees and crouching by him, her hands hovering around him. What happened?!

He was shaking, hands clutching his head as he breathed hard, like he’d been running for his life. “I know this, I should know this,” he whispered in panicked confusion, “I know this. The fifth one.. Fifth.. she...” He stopped abruptly, sitting up like he’d been jolted. “The old lady,” Gregory breathed and turned wide eyes to Cassie, “I met her.”

“Gregory, slow down, you’re not making any sense!” Cassie told him in frustration. He still looked so pale, so gray in his face. She reached up to put her hands to his cheeks and forehead. Clammy and cold, like he was getting sick. “You don't look or feel good at all. We should get you to the nurse,” she told him firmly. “No more looking into this stuff today.”

“But the code..,” Gregory whined softly, his shoulders slumping as he fell forward just enough to drop his forehead against her shoulder. She patted him on the back comfortingly. “It’s all connected, and it’s in the code.. but why is it connecting to me? I don’t know any of these people,” he mumbled tiredly, “And it’s not cuz my last name’s Afton. I’m not a real Afton. Stupid rabbit bitch stole my name and gave me hers cuz she wanted her actual family back.”

Cassie blinked a few times as she let that process, her mind turning over those words a few times. “What?!” she exclaimed incredulously, “What the heck do you mean, a lady stole your name and made you an Afton?!”

Gregory pulled back from her, still looking sickly, and threw himself back against the tree in a tired slouch. “I told you, didn’t I? That the puppet better not be giving me stuff just cuz I’m an Afton, cuz I’m not really one,” he replied mulishly. “Memories make up Remnant, and strong memories and emotions get encoded to the soul. Like pagefile and hard drive space.” He pointed at his own head. “There was a rabbit lady in the Pizzaplex who is an Afton and she wanted her dead family brought back to life. She had like records or something of their Remnant, their memories, but she needed bodies to put them in. So she tried to erase my memories to make space to transfer one set of them into me.”

“Like uninstalling an operating system off a hard drive to make room to install a different one,” Cassie murmured and felt her stomach do a queasy flip again. “That’s why your therapy isn’t really helping to bring memories back?” She couldn’t imagine how that must feel. To have your whole life just stripped away and nothing worked to bring it all back. There was so much just gone forever. Her eyes went to their phones left on the grass next to them. Just like those kids had vanished and died, turned to Remnant that disappeared. “So if you’re not really an Afton, who were you?” she asked carefully, “Or was that a memory that vanished too?”

“Nah, that was erased for sure. Dunno what my name might have been, and all my other records got destroyed and replaced with ‘Gregory Afton’,” he told her with a little shrug, “I saw the name with my picture on a computer screen, so I at least got that much to use when talking to people in the Pizzaplex.”

Cassie scooped up the phones and carefully eased herself back beside him against the tree, pressed close to his side as she looked down at both screens full of articles of tragedy. “I’m sorry,” she murmured quietly, “that you lost so much of yourself.” Her own dad missing because of emergency Fazbear technician work, Gregory’s whole life stolen and replaced, probably the same with his mom, and these kids who all died and became connected to Freddy and Friends.. how many more lives were ruined because of Fazbear Entertainment and Afton Robotics?

Was there anything anyone could do to stop them?

[turnipshepard]

I don’t like that “manufacturing is feeding a piece of metal into a machine not handcrafting furniture” post.

First, while there is a contingent of Trump voters that over romanticizes the manufacturing sector, there are many many Americans who still live in a town that revolves around one or several manufacturing facilities and they probably are more familiar with what a manufacturing job looks like than the poster.

Second, there’s a lot of manufacturing sector jobs that are high skill or require special training. Engineers, technicians, mechanics; loading semi trucks requires knowledge of space optimization and software, yard management is usually done by someone, and many of these people are salaried workers. Not everyone in a manufacturing plant is a line worker, although those positions certainly exist in my limited experience they are typically filled by temp agencies who turn a blind eye to legal status or age and not the jobs people want or imagine themselves having.

I don’t totally hate the post because I do kind of get what OP is saying but it’s just one of those cases where he or she is revealing that in fact THEY don’t know very much about manufacturing in America today.

[nec-india]

In today’s globalized and interconnected supply chains, visibility is paramount for effective management and optimization. Various tracking technologies have emerged to provide real-time insights into the movement of goods, assets, and inventory throughout the supply chain.

[doctorglasgowart]

Do you have names for any of the new parents?

I do. I'll give you a rundown of what each of them do as well.

Cricket's dad is named Johannes, and is one of the main investigative journalists at the Key Manati Horn, the island's newspaper. He expects a lot of Cricket because he sees how dutiful and intelligent his son is. He likes to collect rare first-edition classic novels.

Cricket's mom is named Emily, and is the meteorologist for KMTV, the island's news station. Her peppy demeanor has endeared her to the island's population. She enjoys crocheting.

Bee's dad is named Arturo, and he's the only honest car mechanic in all of Key Manati, which gets him more than enough business to make up for not screwing people over. He's the picture of "loving what you do and you'll never work a day in your life", as he loves to fuck around with cars.

Bee's mom is named Carmen, and she's a stylist. She's pretty insightful and chatty, so getting your hair or nails done by her is practically getting a free therapy session as well. She likes going out dancing with her husband and trashy telenovelas.

Bee's grandma is named Maria. She was a nurse for decades, but is retired now. Her husband died a while ago, but she still wears her wedding ring and isn't looking for anyone new I'm afraid. Her main hobby used to be quilting, but Bee got her into video games and now she's become the scourge of the online shooter scene.

Vanitas' dad is named Mortis. He's Cronus' #1 thug, his go-to guy for anything and everything. If Cronus needs something done, Mortis will do it efficiently and discretely. In his spare time, he likes to see how long he can hold a lighter to his hand before he flinches. There's something fucking wrong with him. He also likes to bake.

Vanitas' mom is named Maya. She's a stay-at-home mom. She and Mortis have a complicated relationship. They drive each other nuts in all the good and bad ways. They've been separated, they've gotten back together, they just don't seem to work together or apart. They're probably better off together so nobody else has to deal with either of them. Maya likes shopping and going to the firing range.

Orion's dad is named Imhotep. That may or may not be his birth name, he's cagey about it. He got an OEL manga deal with Tokyopop a long time ago and was one of the few to make it work. He's been updating it since then. It's a battle manga about the egyptian gods being real and giving people super powers in the sands of Neo-Cairo. He is why Orion is the way he is.

Orion's mom is named Jamila, and she's an OBGYN. She loves her husband and son very much, but wishes they were like, 5% quieter. She likes going running and playing tennis.

Brittany's dad is named Bernard, and he's a senior software engineer. Not even on anything exciting like a video game, he works on something that tracks the regional stability of milk distribution. He has a workshop in a shed in the back yard where he toddles about doing workworking projects and home improvements.

Brittany's mom is named Joyce, and she's a real estate agent. Straight-up, NGL, she's into bimbofication. Her husband isn't even particularly into that, she's doing it to herself for herself. Like, not to kinkshame or anything but geeze. She also really likes the beach and swimming, so when Key Manati first opened itself to immigration she was the one who led the charge for the family moving there.

Kavya's dad is named Viraj, and he's an ecologist. He's studying the impact that Queen Izzy's introduction of hyenas into Key Manati has had on the local fauna. So far it seems to be a positive, as they've culled the invasive deer population down to a manageable amount. He'd love to be able to study the fish-girls, but that's sketchy political territory, so the Key Manati government is treading lightly. He's got a whole room in the house dedicated to his model trains.

Kavya's mom is named Nisha, and is an astronomer at the Key Manati Aeronotical Society for Space EXploration. (do not abbreviate it) Specifically, she monitors radio signals and background radiation from deep space for anomalies, so she works in a totally different department from Noah. She likes the job quite a lot because she's a very quiet, introverted person, who doesn't like most people, and it allows her to be alone and quiet for long stretches of time. In her free time, she enjoys reading gothic horror and indie analog horror stations.

That was a big one! Hope I didn't talk your ear off!

[tmsfretron]

Yard Management System

A Yard Management System (YMS) is a software-based solution designed to streamline and optimize the management of logistics yards and distribution centers. It provides real-time visibility and control over various operations, including trailer and container movements, loading/unloading, and parking allocation. YMS enhances efficiency by automating processes, tracking inventory, and reducing downtime. It facilitates smoother communication between yard personnel and truck drivers, ensuring faster turnarounds and reduced waiting times. The system also offers analytics and reporting tools to improve decision-making and resource planning. By centralizing yard operations, YMS optimizes supply chain logistics, minimizes congestion, and enhances overall productivity in distribution hubs, improving the efficiency of the entire supply chain process.

[mariacallous]

This summer, a Vancouver car mechanic named Max got a perplexing ping on his phone: Betty White was in Ukraine and needed his help. This was surprising because she had died on a Canadian highway back in January.

When Max last saw Betty White, his nickname for his Tesla Model Y Performance, they were both in rough shape after getting sideswiped on the highway. Max’s rotator cuff was torn in several places. The small SUV had bounced off multiple concrete barriers at high speed and was bashed in on all four corners, its wheels ripped to pieces. Coolant appeared to be leaking into the battery chamber. From his own work on EVs in the garage, Max knew that Betty was done for. “No auto shop would put a repair person at risk with that kind of damage,” says Max, whose last name isn’t being used out of doxing concerns. A damaged EV battery can become dangerous due to the risk of shocks, fire, and toxic fumes. His insurer agreed, and Betty was written off and sent to a salvage yard.

Months after he had last seen the car, Max’s Tesla app was now telling him that Betty needed a software update. It showed the car with an extra 200 kilometers on the odometer, fully charged, and parked in Uman, a town in Ukraine’s Cherkasy Oblast, midway between Kyiv and the front line with Russia’s invasion force. Minutes after that first ping, the app showed the car in service mode, suggesting Betty was undergoing repairs. “I thought it must be a mistake,” Max says.

There was no mistake. WIRED tracked Betty down to a Ukrainian auto auction website, looking good as new, maybe even better, with newly tinted windows and rearview mirrors wrapped in black. Betty 2.0 was being sold by “Mikhailo,” who wrote that the car had suffered “a small blow” in Canada and been repaired with original Tesla parts. The price, $55,000, was roughly the same as a new Model Y Performance costs in the US.

Betty White’s intercontinental resurrection was impressive but not unusual. For a long time, cars written off in North America have found their way to Eastern European repair shops willing to take on damage that US and Canadian mechanics won’t touch. In 2021, the most recent data available, Ukraine was a top-three destination for used US passenger vehicles sent overseas, close behind Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates. And Ukraine’s wreck importers and repairers are particularly known for their ingenuity. Some have made fixing EVs written off across the Atlantic into a specialty, helping to drive a surge in the number of electric vehicles on the country’s roads, even as the war with Russia rages.

Though few automakers sell new EVs in Ukraine, the share of newly registered vehicles that are fully electric, 9 percent, is about the same as in the US and nearly double that of neighboring Poland and the Czech Republic. Most of Ukraine’s refurbished EVs come from North America, and many arrive with major damage.

There’s a ready supply of crashed North American EVs in part because electrics are becoming more common, and also because in recent years, relatively new EVs with low mileage have been written off at a higher rate than their gas-powered equivalents, according to data from insurers. US and Canadian repair shops and insurers see them as more dangerous and difficult to fix. Scrapyards find it hard to make money from their parts and instead ship them abroad.

Ivan Malakhovsky is not afraid to work on cases like Betty White. His five-year-old repair business in Dnipro, in eastern Ukraine, fixes about 100 Teslas a month, roughly a fifth of them from overseas, and employs a staff that varies between six to 10 people. He’s currently away from home, serving with the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but he manages his workers, and sometimes makes software-mediated repairs, remotely. “We have problems in our lives and can fix them, whether a battery or a full-scale invasion,” says Malakhovsky. “Electric cars, electric car batteries—it’s no problem.”

An electric vehicle battery is made up of thousands of individual cells, which store and release energy. Sometimes, Malakhovsky says, he and his coworkers will break up large EV batteries damaged beyond repair and repurpose the cells to power electric scooters or even drones for the war effort. He says the vast majority of Teslas on Ukrainian roads were once involved in wrecks in North America.

The war has even boosted Ukraine’s EV resurrection business at times, by driving up gas prices and making electrics more attractive to drivers. Ukraine has a public charging network of some 11,000 chargers, according to Volodymyr Ivanov, the head of communications at Nissan Motor Ukraine—that’s more than the state of New York, and double the number in neighboring Poland. Since 2018, Ukraine’s government has removed most taxes and customs duties on used EV imports. In the US, electric vehicles tend to be expensive, and the average EV driver is still a high-income male homeowner. North American wrecks, Ukraine’s EV incentives, and its relatively low electricity prices have created a different picture. “There is a joke here that all poor people are driving electric cars, and all the rich people are driving petrol cars,” says Malakhovsky. “Tesla is a common-people, popular car because it’s very cheap in maintenance.”

That’s a relatively recent development, says Hans Eric Melin, head of Circular Energy Storage, a UK-based consultancy that tracks the international flows of used EVs and batteries. He began watching the Ukraine market in particular a few years ago, after he noticed more ads for Nissan Leafs on auction sites listed in Ukrainian than in English. At the time, the Leaf, a pioneer among EVs, was essentially the only one that had been around long enough to develop a healthy used market. Over time, Ukraine’s electric fleet grew to encompass the full range of EVs sold around the world, including Teslas, as more cars hit the roads and aged or got into crashes.

Melin had suspected Ukraine’s EV boom would end with the war. “I was completely wrong,” he says. By this summer, Ukraine’s EV fleet had doubled since July 2021, to 64,312, according to data compiled by the Automotive Market Research Institute, a Ukrainian research and advocacy group.

Roman Tyschenko, a 25-year-old IT worker who lives in Kyiv, decided last September that he was sick of his Jeep’s $400-a-month gas bill. Friends had purchased used, damaged electric cars on an online auction website called Copart, a US-based public auto reseller with 200 locations around the world. He logged on and spent $24,000 on a gray 2021 Tesla Model Y that had taken a solid blow to its passenger side in Dallas, Texas. Its bumper was almost fully detached; its hood was tented; some of its airbags had deployed.

That Texan Model Y was likely declared totaled by an insurer. From there, it probably moved to a salvage auction in the US, where licensed exporters, salvage shops, and repairers tried to figure out how much value they could squeeze out of the wreck. The winner, or perhaps the insurer itself, listed the car on Copart, which made it available to anyone around the world who wanted a smashed-up Tesla and was willing to pay for shipping.

If Tyschenko hadn’t brought the Texan Tesla to Ukraine himself, it had a good chance of being shipped there anyway by someone who professionally flips cars to countries like Ukraine. These exporters look for wrecks potentially worth more than their scrap value, but little enough that an expensive US repair and resale wouldn’t make sense. Some ship vehicles directly to Ukrainian repairers and pay for the fix, while others import damaged cars and relist them for sale to Ukrainian buyers who can figure it out for themselves.

It takes a damaged North American car between one and five months to reach a nearby port. Before the war, wrecked cars headed to Ukraine’s Port of Odessa on the Black Sea. Since Russia invaded in 2022, they come through Klaipėda in Lithuania on the Baltic Sea, or Koper in Slovenia on the Adriatic, and are brought to Ukraine by truck. A shop like Malakhovsky’s can fix a Tesla in somewhere between one week and one year, depending on the damage.

Tyschenko arranged for his Model Y to be shipped to a local repair shop in Kyiv, where it arrived in February 2023, five months after he hit the Buy button online. The technician sent him videos of the EV’s ongoing revamp every few weeks, and Tyschenko stopped by to visit a handful of times. By May, he had paid the technician some $25,000 for his work and was driving the Model Y around Kyiv.

Two months later, the battery died and Tyschenko spent another $4,000 to replace it—a demonstration of the risks of electric vehicle rescues. Still, he’s happy with how things worked out, and now pays just $10 to $100 a month to refuel his car, depending on whether he charges at home or at public stations.

Finding parts to repair Teslas and other EVs can be a challenge. On Facebook and Telegram, groups like “Renault Zoe Club Ukraine” host thousands of EV owners who barter with each other for spare parts. Oleksandr Perepelitsa, a 25-year-old electric vehicle repairer in Kyiv, says that when he first began his work three years ago, he and his business partners would buy two wrecked Teslas from overseas to create a single working vehicle to sell to local Ukranians. “Even that was profitable for us,” he says. Now, business connections can send Tesla parts from the US or Europe, or repairers buy cheaper Chinese reproductions.

The success of Ukraine’s EV resurrection industry is the flip side of the failure of insurers and manufacturers in North America to figure out what to do when a shiny new EV becomes roadkill.

US insurers are more willing to write off vehicles of all kinds that in the past may have been fixed. New vehicle repairs have gotten more expensive, in part due to vehicles getting more complex and computerized, as well as a shortage of vehicle technicians. In the past decade, the damaged cars up for auction “are better and less damaged,” Copart CEO Jeff Liaw told investors on an earnings call this year.

Industry-wide data is hard to come by, but numerous sources suggest that EVs are more likely to be written off than gas-powered cars, and can be declared unfixable after even minor crashes. A Reuters analysis this year found that a “large portion” of damaged EVs sold for scrap were low-mileage, nearly-new vehicles. While one in 10 new cars sold in the US and Canada this year are forecasted to be electric, the infrastructure and expertise needed to assess and fix damaged EVs can be patchy. “In an ideal world, electric vehicles are as easy to repair as internal combustion engine vehicles,” says Mark Fry, research manager at Thatcham Research, which crunches auto market data for insurers and other clients. It recently found British EVs get written off at disproportionately high rates.

The main reason EV repairs are so tricky comes down to a lack of agreement on how to handle EV batteries after a crash. Worldwide, there is no industry standard for measuring battery health. Vehicle manufacturers sometimes refuse to sanction battery repairs because of liability concerns. “If you repair the battery, what's it going to be like after another two, three years and another 50,000 miles?” Fry says. It’s easier to let nearly new vehicles be declared dead than to find out.

The North American scrap industry is also somewhat leery of EVs, says Megan Slattery, a researcher at UC Davis who studies what happens to damaged EV batteries. Scrap businesses generally make money by taking cars apart to extract the most valuable widgets to resell. But dismantling a battery takes dedicated workers, equipment, and—most important of all—space, due to the fire risks of storing lithium-ion cells. Many mom-and-pop dismantlers don’t have any of that.

Plus, EVs tend to have simpler drivetrains, with more plastic and large, prefabricated body components that can’t be easily pulled apart. In some electric vehicles, the battery is built directly into the car’s structure, making it especially difficult to dismantle or repair. All of that means that exporters looking to sell to eager buyers abroad have less competition when bidding on totaled cars.

In the US, there’s increasing pressure to keep broken EVs from heading overseas. Regulators are concerned about safety, hoping to better track broken batteries through shipping channels as fears rise of fires sparked by used EVs, including on cargo ships. Another is to avoid dumping e-waste on countries without the means to recycle or repurpose, and instead keep the valuable minerals inside batteries local. Battery recycling startups have received vast amounts of private and public investment—both in Western Europe and the US, with funds from the Inflation Reduction Act—with a promise to help shore up raw material supply chains. But so far, they have received only a trickle of used batteries.

Policies that wind up choking off the export of EV wrecks would in some ways be a shame, Slattery says. More stringent European Union export rules for used cars and EV batteries in particular are one reason why the supply of Teslas to Eastern Europe is so dependent on North American wrecks. Without them, the electric revolution would be much less advanced in places like Ukraine, where US and Canadian write-offs have helped support the emergence of charger networks, trained repair specialists, and a wide familiarity and acceptance that electric propulsion is not just green but also practical.

In North America, there's a widespread belief that “people don't want electric vehicles and that it's just laws and regulations that push us to buy them,” says Melin, the used EV analyst. “There are other markets that want to have electrics.” It’s a testament to a system that is working, Melin adds, that used EVs end up in places like Ukraine, where new models are difficult to come by.

For Max in Vancouver, Betty White’s reappearance overseas did cause some headaches. The car was still logged into his Google, Netflix, and Spotify accounts, potentially allowing the new owners to access his personal data. When he asked Tesla support, he was advised to change his passwords, Max says. (Tesla did not respond to WIRED’s questions.)

But looking back on the crash, and now driving a new Model Y—named Black Betty—Max says his old car’s resurrection is the best possible outcome. “I’m happy to see that Betty White has lived to see another day,” he says.