Would my company benefit from dock scheduling software?

Take the self-assessment to see if your company is the right fit for dock scheduling software. Find yourself answering yes? It’s time to think about booking appointments with dock scheduling software!

About Your Company

• We run at least one facility where we coordinate inbound or outbound appointments with carriers.
• Our volume exceeds 10 trucks per working day or about 200 each month.

Current Scheduling Process

• We schedule dock appointments using phone calls and emails.
• We track appointments with spreadsheets or email calendars like Outlook and Gmail.
• We use a TMS or WMS with dock scheduling that lacks functionality or is difficult to use.
• We currently operate on a first-come, first-served basis
• We frequently have scheduling conflicts or missed appointments.
• Our team spends time managing and coordinating routine dock appointments every day.

Operational Efficiency

• We often have underutilized or overbooked docks.
• We often have long truck lines.
• There are frequent bottlenecks that slow down loading or unloading at our facility.
• It’s hard to plan the right amount of labor, and our dock staff is often idle or overwhelmed during peak times.

Visibility and Communication

• We don’t have an easy way to see upcoming dock appointments or their current status (scheduled, arrived, in progress, completed).
• Communication gaps between the dock teams and drivers cause delays.
• When an appointment changes, we struggle to adjust and use our dock space and labor resources efficiently.

Data and Reporting

• We can’t easily access data about our appointment trends or carrier OTD rates and KPIs.
• We struggle to analyze key metrics like dwell time for trucks.
• We operate in southern CA and need a proven way to remain ISR compliant.
• We don’t have a way to easily identify areas of improvement.

Scalability and Flexibility

• We struggle to handle increased shipping volumes during peak seasons.
• We struggle with over/under-hiring during peak seasons.
• We have a distributed facility network, and corporate struggles to maintain control and visibility to multiple dock locations.
• We lack a standardized process with each facility using different tools and managing multiple vendors

Customer and Carrier Experience

• Our customers complain about late deliveries and missed appointments due to their orders not being picked up on time.
• Our carriers complain about long wait times and inefficient dock operations.
• Our carriers are frustrated that there isn’t an easy way for them to schedule, reschedule, or cancel appointments.
• When capacity tightens, my carriers may work with another company because we are not a 'shipper of choice'.
• Our current shipping rates are increasing because carriers are pricing inefficient dock operations into their freight.

Cost and Resource Management

• Scheduling errors sometimes result in lost sales.
• We pay a lot of overtime when our docks get overwhelmed.
• Detention fees are eating into our bottom line.

The more questions you agree with, the more reasons you have to talk to the Opendock team about getting dock scheduling software!

Want to get started? Schedule a demo with the team!