Five portals, one spreadsheet and a missing reference
Every depot you deliver into has its own way of booking: a web portal for one retailer, a different portal for another, an email for the wholesaler, a phone call for the independent. The transport office books slots as orders come in, writes the reference in a spreadsheet and tries to keep it lined up with the route plan.
Then the plan changes. A load moves to a different trailer and leaves an hour later. The slot at the depot is now wrong. Nobody rebooks it, the driver arrives outside the window, and the depot turns the load away or makes it wait for hours at the gate with the unit running.
Or the slot was never booked at all, because the order came in late and the person who books slots was on the phone to a driver.
Why slots get missed
Slot booking sits between customer orders, the transport plan and the depot's portal, and none of them talks to the others.
- Each depot's portal is separate and has its own reference format.
- Bookings are tracked in a spreadsheet, not against the load.
- Route plan changes do not prompt a check of the slot.
- Drivers do not always have the reference to hand at the gate.
- Late orders skip the booking step in the rush.
What a missed slot costs
A refused or delayed delivery is costly at any depot. With chilled and frozen goods, waiting at the gate adds fuel for the unit, driver hours and risk to the product. Some depots charge for missed or late slots. Repeat failures damage your standing with the retailer and, through them, with your customer who owns the product.
The office also spends time rebooking, calling depots and explaining to customers why their product did not arrive on time.
How we tie every slot to its load
- Each load in your transport system carries the depots it serves, and for each depot a slot status: needed, booked, confirmed, changed.
- Where a portal has an API or sends booking confirmations by email, we read the reference and time straight into the load. Where it does not, the booker enters them in one place instead of a spreadsheet.
- A list shows loads that still need slots, ordered by departure time, so nothing is left to memory.
- When the route plan changes, the system compares the new arrival estimate with the booked window and flags loads that will miss it.
- The booking reference and window appear on the driver's app and paperwork for that drop.
- On the day, arrival times from tracking are compared with slot windows, and loads running late are highlighted in time to call the depot.
| Slot state | What the office sees |
|---|---|
| Needed | Load on the to-book list |
| Booked | Reference and window on the load |
| At risk | Plan change or delay puts arrival outside window |
| Missed | Flag for rebooking and customer update |
We do not book slots on your behalf through portals that forbid automation. Where a portal allows integration, we use it; where it does not, we make the manual step quick and hard to miss.
What the transport office sees after
One list of loads and their slot status, instead of a spreadsheet beside a plan. Changes that threaten a slot are spotted while there is time to rebook. Drivers arrive at the gate with the right reference.
When a customer asks why a delivery was late, the load record shows the slot, the arrival time and any rebooking, which makes the conversation factual.
Are slots slipping through?
- Depot slots are tracked in a spreadsheet next to the plan.
- Loads have been refused because the slot was wrong or missing.
- Plan changes do not trigger a slot check.
- Drivers ring the office for the booking reference at the gate.
- Late orders sometimes go without a slot.