A delivery has a booked appointment, and receiving has planned work around it. When the truck does not arrive, someone has to decide whether to keep that plan, move people to other work, or make a new arrangement for the delivery.
A booking reserves receiving capacity.
The receiving team plans work around booked deliveries. A delay, no-show or rebooking changes how that reserved time can be used—and when the delivery can be unloaded.
- BookedDelivery scheduled
- What changedDelay reported
- What happens nextLater arrival expected
- BookedUnloading planned
- What changedAdvance notice received
- What happens nextOther work can fill the gap
Advance notice gives the receiving team a chance to rearrange work. If another job is ready, the crew can work on it until the delayed delivery arrives.
- BookedDelivery scheduled
- What changedTruck does not arrive
- What happens nextArrival time unknown
- BookedUnloading planned
- What changedNo arrival update
- What happens nextWait or start another job
If the crew is ready to unload, the supervisor has a choice: keep them available or start another job that may still be in progress if the truck arrives later.
- BookedDelivery scheduled
- What changedAppointment missed
- What happens nextNew appointment booked
- BookedUnloading planned
- What changedOriginal slot goes unused
- What happens nextUnload in a later slot
Here, the original slot went unused and the delivery still needs unloading later. Rescheduling moves the work; it does not recover the unused slot.
Could a charge make the commitment clearer? Appointment charges exist. Whether one could work at your facility depends on what it covers, who agrees to it, and how you establish what happened.
Define the commitment a charge would cover
DP World Southampton’s published 2026 vehicle-booking tariff includes a £59.84 non-conformance charge. Its listed examples include a vehicle failing to arrive within the booked time. That is a specific terminal’s commercial arrangement; a warehouse needs to establish terms suited to its own relationships. See the published tariff and examples.
Start with the receiving commitment you want a policy to protect. A late truck, a no-show and a cancellation reported early enough to reuse the slot create different decisions. If advance warning matters, define when notice must arrive and who receives it. If the concern is unused capacity followed by another booking, explain how the original and replacement appointments would be treated.
Establish the operational consequence as well. Another ready job may have filled the gap. A crew may have waited, or started work it could not interrupt when the truck eventually arrived. Rebooking also places unloading onto a later plan. Those circumstances help explain the business reason for a proposed charge without treating every missed slot as the same loss.
Establish who can agree to the terms
The booking contact may be a carrier dispatcher, supplier or broker. The driver may have had no part in making the appointment or agreeing commercial terms. Trace who buys the transport, who controls the booking and which organization would be asked to pay.
Bring the proposal to the person responsible for that commercial relationship. Together, establish what any charge covers, how the terms would be communicated and agreed, who would pay, and how exceptions and disputes would be reviewed. Have the proposed terms assessed against the relevant contracts and commercial arrangements before implementation.
Include the facility’s side of the appointment commitment. What service is the warehouse committing to provide during the booked period? Who may change that commitment? What happens when the facility cannot honour it? A carrier could arrive late on a day when the warehouse was also unavailable at the agreed time. A workable policy needs a way to consider both circumstances.
Test the proposal against real appointments
Before announcing a policy, apply its proposed definitions to recent visits. Bring together the agreed appointment, any confirmed change, the time notice reached receiving, the actual arrival if one occurred, and the work affected. Include awkward examples: an advance delay report, a disputed arrival time and a missed appointment rebooked for later.
Keep the stages of a visit distinct. June 2026 reporting in Transport Topics describes carriers examining the periods between gate arrival, dock arrival, service and departure. Those records support a more specific conversation about where time went. Financial responsibility still depends on the applicable arrangement. Read the reporting on how carriers examine detention data.
DataDocks appointment notes, arrival classifications, tags and reports can help assemble the operating account for this review. Keep explanations alongside the classifications so the reviewer can understand what happened. Counting tagged appointments and multiplying by a proposed rate gives an estimate for discussion; it does not establish money owed or collectible revenue.
Prepare a short proposal naming the commitment, the event that would trigger a charge, the commercial parties and the evidence needed to explain a decision. Work through the disputed examples with operations and the commercial owner. Resolve those gaps before asking staff to apply the policy.
