Dock scheduling · part of CargoPay

Every truck has a slot.
Nobody has a queue.

DockPass turns your loading bays into a bookable calendar. Your carriers pick their own slot online, without an account and without an app and your yard works the day from one board that already knows who is coming, when, and to which bay.

No account for carriers Calendar invite for the driver Trilingual EN · ES · RO
Dock 2 · Tuesday 3 booked
  • 08:00 · Delivery Transportes Ariza · 4412 KBD Done
  • 08:45 · Pickup Nordtrans SRL · B 221 TRN At dock
  • 09:30 · Delivery Envases Levante · 1187 JLM Expected
The list exists the night before.
Nobody arrives unannounced.

In short

  • DockPass publishes your loading bays and their opening hours as a calendar, and lets each carrier book their own slot against the shipment you contracted them for.
  • Carriers need no account and no app: a shipment reference and an email address is all it takes, they confirm your site on a map before booking, and the driver receives a calendar invite.
  • Your yard runs the day from one board check in, at the bay, done with every step timestamped and a full audit trail behind each booking.

What exactly is dock scheduling?

Dock scheduling gives every arriving truck a named time on a named bay, instead of letting it turn up whenever the road allows. You publish which bays are open and when; the carrier picks one of the free slots against their shipment; and the yard works from a list that exists before the first truck is on the motorway.

The gain is not the calendar itself it is what the calendar removes. Nobody phones the planner to ask when they can come. Nobody discovers at the barrier that three trucks want the same bay. And the argument about how long a truck waited stops being a matter of whose notebook you believe, because gate in, on the bay and off the bay are all timestamped on the booking.

DockPass is the dock scheduling service inside CargoPay. It books against shipments you already hold on the platform, which is why the carrier, the reference and the direction never have to be typed a second time.

What changes at the gate?

An unscheduled yard is not short of information it is short of it in advance. Almost everything a warehouse loses at the dock is lost in the gap between a truck leaving its last stop and somebody at the gate finding out about it.

Without booked slots With DockPass
Trucks arrive whenever the road allows Every shipment holds a named time on a named bay
The gate learns who is coming when they turn up Tomorrow's list exists tonight, bay by bay
A delay reaches you as a queue at the barrier A delay is visible on the board before it becomes a queue
Detention arguments rest on nobody's notes Gate in, on the bay and off the bay are timestamped
Rescheduling is a phone call to the planner The carrier moves their own slot, up to your cut-off
Two trucks turn up for one bay One booking per slot, enforced
The waiting-time conversation is the one that pays for itself. Detention claims are usually settled on whoever kept better notes. With every gate step timestamped against the booking, there is a record instead of a recollection.

How does a carrier book a slot?

From the shipment reference on their transport order, in a browser, with nothing to install. Carriers are not your users anything they have to register for or remember is a booking you will end up making by phone instead.

1

Enter the reference and an email

The reference from their transport order, and where the confirmation should go. Every answer on this screen looks the same, so nobody can fish for references that exist.

2

Confirm the site

The site they are expected at, with its address and a pin on the gate. Answering no ends it there the most expensive mistake in dock scheduling is a driver at the wrong depot.

3

Pick a free time

A plain list of open windows at that site. They never pick a bay the system works out which of yours can take the load and offers the times only.

4

Add haulier, driver, plate and phone

The four things your gatehouse needs. The window is held while they type, then released if they walk away.

5

Confirm

The booking gets its own reference, and the confirmation carries your address, your access instructions, the bay number and a calendar invite.

6

Change it if they must

Their confirmation links to their booking, where they can move or cancel it themselves until your cut-off.

Why confirm the site first? Because a reference travels it is on the order, in email threads, on paperwork and the costly mistake is not a stranger booking a slot, it is a driver arriving at the wrong depot. So the site is shown on a map and confirmed before anything is held, you decide which of your sites a shipment calls at and in which direction, and every booking lands on your board with the address it was made from.

What do you have to set up?

Four things, once. After that the only daily work is the board and the bookings arrive on their own.

1

Describe the site

Address, local timezone and the access instructions drivers need gate number, reporting procedure, what to bring. That text travels with every booking made there.

2

Add the bays

Each bay carries its own direction inbound, outbound or both and its own slot length. A carrier is only ever offered bays that can serve their load.

3

Publish the hours

A weekly grid per bay, with a morning and an afternoon period so a break in the middle is a break in the grid too.

4

Add the exceptions

Holidays, stocktakes and broken ramps go in as closures, on the whole site or on a single bay. Bookings already inside the window are shown to you rather than cancelled behind your back.

5

Put a shipment on a site

From the shipment itself, one site at a time, saying whether the carrier collects there or delivers there. A load can call at several of your sites in order a collection at one, a delivery at another, or both ends of a cross-dock and carriers are offered them one at a time, in your order.

Several sites, several clocks. Each site keeps its own timezone, so hours and slots read correctly in Valencia and in Ploiești at the same time including on the weekend the clocks change.

What does the day look like?

One board, one row per truck, in time order. The gatehouse walks each booking forward as the truck moves, and the exceptions the late one, the one still on the bay, the one that never came are already coloured in when you look up.

One board per day

Every bay, every booking, in time order with the shipment, the carrier, the driver and the plate already on the row.

Three clicks per truck

Check in at the gate, at the bay, done. Each click stamps a time, and the order is enforced rather than assumed.

Late and overrunning, flagged

A truck that has not checked in, or one still on the bay past its slot, is coloured on the board before anybody complains.

Recover a late bay in one move

Shift the rest of that bay's day and every affected carrier is emailed the new time. Whatever will not fit is reported, never dropped.

No-shows on the record

Marked by a person, never by a timer, and kept with the booking for the conversation that follows.

A full audit trail

Who changed what, when, and from which side your board or the carrier's link.

Nothing changes state on its own. A truck is never cancelled, released or marked absent by a timer the badges say what is happening, and a person decides what to do about it.

Why book the dock where the freight already lives?

A standalone slot-booking tool starts from an empty database: you re-enter the shipment, the carrier and the reference, then keep two systems agreeing with each other. DockPass books against the transport order you already hold.

It books against a real shipment

A slot belongs to a shipment you already have in CargoPay, so the reference, the carrier and the direction come from the transport order rather than being typed twice.

A cancelled shipment frees its slot

Cancel the transport and the dock booking goes with it. The grid reopens without anyone having to remember.

The paperwork is signed at the same dock

The e-CMR that closes the load is issued from the same shipment, so the arrival, the loading and the signed consignment note are one thread.

Trilingual, end to end

Booking pages, confirmations and calendar invites reach every carrier in English, Spanish or Romanian.

Frequently asked questions about DockPass

Dock scheduling gives every arriving truck a named time on a named loading bay instead of letting it turn up whenever the road allows. You publish which bays are open and when; the carrier books one of the free slots against their shipment; and the yard works the day from a single list that already exists before the first truck arrives.

No. The carrier opens the public booking page, enters the shipment reference from their transport order and the address the confirmation should reach, and picks a time. There is nothing to register, nothing to install and no password. Only your side the warehouse needs an account.

The shipment reference on their transport order is the key, and the booking page confirms the site on a map before anything is held so a driver heading to the wrong depot is caught before they set off. You decide which of your sites a shipment calls at, and in which direction, so a carrier cannot book the wrong site or the wrong way round. Every booking shows on your board with the address it was made from, ready to cancel if it is not one you expected.

Yes, up to a cut-off you configure. Inside that window the self-service buttons disappear and the page tells them to contact your warehouse. The cut-off never binds you: your board can cancel a booking at any time, including minutes before the slot, and the carrier is emailed a link to book again. When a whole bay has slipped, you shift the rest of its day in one move instead.

No. A slot is claimed by exactly one booking; the second attempt is told the slot has just gone and is returned to the grid. That holds however close together the two clicks arrive.

Yes. Each site carries its own timezone, and opening hours, closures and every slot are shown in that local clock so a Spanish warehouse and a Romanian one both read correctly to everyone looking, including across a daylight-saving change.

Opening hours are set per bay, per weekday, with a morning and an afternoon period fill both to leave a break in the middle, fill one for a straight shift, leave both empty to close that day. Anything exceptional on top is a closure: a holiday, a stocktake or a broken ramp, applied to the whole site or to a single bay.

You shift the rest of that bay's day by as many minutes as you need, and every affected carrier is emailed the new time automatically. Anything that would land past closing time or on top of another booking is reported back to you rather than moved silently.

The confirmation email carries the site address, your access instructions and a calendar invite the driver can accept. If the booking is later moved, that same calendar entry updates instead of a second one appearing.

No. Slot length, how long a slot is held while the carrier types, how much notice a booking needs and the carrier cut-off are all configuration, set for your operation rather than shipped as a rule. The in-app user guide lists the platform defaults.

Give your yard a timetable

Publish one bay, send one carrier to book against it, and watch the whole day come back in order before you commit a site to it.