Scheduling: The Best Proactive Methods to Prevent Clogging
Scheduling: Why it Counts
Scheduling can be the difference between a smooth day and one that falls apart! When you operate according to a plan, you know who should arrive when, and you have the knowledge that allows you to follow up with late carriers. When you fly by the seat of your pants, so to speak, you have no idea when your day is complete, if you have serviced all the trucks you were supposed to, etc.
Opportunities for Planning
There are different ways to plan your trucking appointments. For instance, you can always have all deliveries scheduled for the morning, and all pickups in the afternoon. You can mix them up based on customer needs; we do this a lot. Our schedule is set up from 7:00 am – 4:00 pm, and our policy is that the last truck can’t arrive later than 3:30 pm. The reason for that is that we allow time to load or unload the truck before closing for the day. Appointments run every 30 minutes, and when necessary, we schedule two trucks every thirty minutes.
Flexibility is Key in Scheduling
Even if you are currently operating using a schedule, you have to learn to be flexible. Your planning can’t be so rigid that it prevents you from accommodating the disasters. Late trucks are a given, but if they notify you, then you should be able to work with them and still receive them. How you plan your day should be a guide to what the workload for the day is. Your calendar or planning tool can also be used for tracking arrival times.
Example of Why It Matters
The ability to be flexible helps drivers in multiple ways. Let’s say your truck is for 8:00 am calls and informs you that he can’t be there until 2:00 pm. The next thing that happens is your 1:30 truck arrives early and wants to know if he can be unloaded early. This is a scenario where flexibility is important.
