2020 was the year of unprecedented turns within the shipping industry. Much of the fluctuations came from the mass order of online and grocery shipments and lack of drivers. Because of the mass chaos this year, shippers have started to invest in a dock scheduling system for best practices, decongest the shipping yard, and become more desirable shippers for drivers. Let’s take a closer look at what dock management software would look like and how it adds value within a retail environment.
The shipping yard; the place where all the magic happens. The hub of all consumer goods can be one costly place. Congestion in the yard leads to undesirable dwell time, leading to loss of money and time on everyone’s end. And due to lack of drivers, some can choose to avoid those places altogether, which means people pay drivers more to go to the “picky” shippers. According to Bridget McCrea of Logistics Management,
“As shippers come up with new ways to manage these and other roadblocks, companies like Amazon continue to raise the bar for customer expectations in both the B2C and B2B landscapes. With their e-commerce sales soaring—and brick-and-mortar sales either stagnating or declining—many companies have to walk the tightrope between meeting consumer delivery demands without overspending on transportation.”
By combining technology with systems in the existing tech stack, shippers can leverage an integrated dock scheduling system to streamline loading/unloading management, reduce congestion and grow more attractive to drivers and carriers alike.
A missed appointment means someone else takes the other’s slot. And the day keeps moving forward with the rest of the schedule. This is dock scheduling software—an appointment book to keep the day on track. Every truck loading and unloading has a time and place, and if one is missed, another truck can be moved to that slot. Thus, the day can continue without the need for dwell times since drivers know their times. Even picky shippers narrow down the schedule to show their desirable time slots.
Let’s face it. Traffic will not yield to the driver most in need. Truckers are at war with time, and giving them every opportunity to manage time slots is critical. COVID has made the markets surge and has made some places (mainly the supermarkets) undesirable docking stations. With the little choices in drivers, the need for a dock scheduling system is now more than ever to comply with requirements and desires. That’s true not just for drivers but also for companies with stricter time slots and longer than usual wait times. Dock scheduling software lessens time at the dock and results in fewer late and missed appointments.
The choice is clear; dock scheduling software is a necessity for now and years to come. Without it, the whole yard and even your transportation and land in a world of hurt. What about choosing the right one? There might be quite a few to choose from for all different scenarios and dock types. For more information, request a C3 Solutions demo today.