The driver has a number, but the shipping team cannot match it to an expected pickup. Someone asks dispatch. Dispatch contacts the customer. The truck is already at the facility, waiting for an answer that could have been checked before it arrived.
DataDocks creator and CEO Nick Rakovsky describes this chain as a common source of dwell time. Getting a truck through check-in depends on the information reaching the driver and the people handling the load.
Watch Nick explain the changes he recommends below (14:56), including advance paperwork, clearer communication, yard flow, and team training.
Give the driver a reference your team can use
Nick describes drivers arriving with a number that the warehouse cannot connect to a load, or with no pickup information at all. The team starts searching through order and load numbers before sending the driver back to dispatch for help.
Agree which reference identifies a pickup at your facility. Make sure the carrier passes it to the driver and that the shipping team can use it to find the expected order. If a customer uses one number and your warehouse uses another, resolve that connection before check-in.
The same preparation applies to forms. Nick recommends collecting the necessary information before the driver has to wait for someone at the gate or office. Putting a paper form on a screen helps little if the answer still needs three phone calls.
Move the questions ahead of the arrival
The illustration below follows one pickup. Compare a truck arriving with unresolved details against one whose reference has already been matched to the expected order and shared with the driver.
Same pickup.
When do you identify it?
Before arrival
On arrival
The warehouse cannot identify the pickup.
- DriverAsks dispatch
- DispatchAsks the customer
- Shipping teamMatches the pickup
Each answer depends on reaching the next person after arrival.
The questions were resolved earlier. The shipping team can find the expected order at check-in.
The checking still needs doing. Completing it earlier gives the team a chance to resolve the question before the truck is on site. It also depends on someone reviewing the information: a filled-in reference field alone does not establish that it identifies the correct load.
Choose one recurring pickup where the team often has to chase details. Check what the carrier receives, what reaches the driver, and what the shipping team can find. Agree who will obtain a missing answer and where the confirmed details will be recorded.
Then compare what happens at arrival. Is the team still contacting dispatch to identify the pickup? Does the driver know the check-in process? Use those observations to improve the instructions and forms.
How DataDocks helps
DataDocks lets teams collect required appointment information through the carrier portal and configure booking fields around their operation. Appointment notifications and driver communication help keep carriers and the facility informed as the load moves through check-in.
See how DataDocks could help your team prepare for arriving drivers.
