Half the afternoon on booking-in
Tomorrow's plan has eleven deliveries into regional distribution centres. Four sites use one online booking portal, two use another, three want an email to a booking-in address with a reply that may or may not come, and two still want a phone call. Each needs the purchase order numbers, pallet count and the supplier's reference, which are in the customer's order email, not your plan.
Once a slot is booked, the reference has to go onto the job and to the driver. If the slot moves, or the delivery is running late, the whole thing starts again.
Why it takes so long
The work is repetitive but not uniform. Every site does it differently, and the information needed comes from several places.
- Each site has its own booking method, rules and cut-off times.
- Purchase order and supplier references sit in the customer's paperwork.
- Booking confirmations come back by email and have to be matched to loads.
- References are retyped into the plan and passed to drivers by phone.
- Late running means rebooking, often in a hurry.
What a missed or wrong slot costs
A truck that arrives without a valid booking, or with the wrong reference, can be turned away or made to wait until the site can fit it in. That costs driver hours, can wreck the rest of the plan, and may bring a charge from the site or your customer. Planners who spend the afternoon on portals are not planning, and portal work tends to expand to fill the afternoon because each site has its own quirks: minimum notice periods, pallet limits per slot, a requirement to book the day before by a set time. And knowledge of how each site works is concentrated in one or two people.
The slot tracker we build
- Every load delivering to a site that needs a booking is added to a list automatically when it enters the plan, with the purchase order references and pallet details pulled from the customer's order.
- Each site's booking method, cut-off times and rules are held in one place, so anyone in the office can book it.
- For sites that take email bookings, the system drafts the request with the right details. Where a site's portal can be used by automation within its terms, the tool prepares the booking for the planner to confirm; where it cannot, the tool shows the details to copy in one click.
- Confirmation emails are read, and the slot and reference are attached to the load automatically.
- The driver sees the booking reference and slot time in their app or job sheet.
- If a truck is running late against its slot, the planner is alerted early enough to request a new time.
| Step | Manual | With the tracker |
|---|---|---|
| Knowing which loads need booking | Read through the plan | Listed automatically |
| Finding the references | Search the customer's emails | Pulled from the order |
| Booking | Different method per site, from memory | Method held per site, request drafted |
| Getting the reference to the driver | Phone call | On the job sheet |
| Running late | Found at the gate | Alerted in time to rebook |
After the change
Booking-in becomes a list to work through, not a puzzle. Anyone can cover it, because each site's rules are written down. Drivers arrive with the right reference. Late running is spotted while there is still time to do something about it, rather than at the gatehouse.
Checklist for your booking-in
- Planners use several booking portals every day.
- Booking references are typed into the plan by hand.
- Trucks have been turned away for booking problems.
- Only one or two people know how each site books.
- Rebooking late-running deliveries is a scramble.