Collections and despatch

PlatformGoods Out → Collections · Orders · the loader app

The dock diary runs in both directions. A lorry coming to be loaded is a collection: an outbound slot on the same diary as your deliveries. It signs in at the gate, is given a bay and signs out on the Yard exactly as a delivery does. What goes on it is recorded one of two ways: against a customer order in the office, or box by box on the loader app.

Booking the collection

From an order that is confirmed or being picked, press Book collection and give the haulier, the vehicle registration, the pallets and how many hours from now it is due. That books an approved outbound slot, and the customer sees the collection on their order straight away.

A collection that is not for one order is booked from Goods Out → Collections → Book a collection, the same form as a new delivery booking, asking for the carrier collecting. Either way it shows on Live bookings with the rest of the day, and in the Yard’s waiting list marked Collection.

Stamping the loading

Once the vehicle is signed in, the dedicated Collections page and the collection’s own record carry three buttons: Called to dock, Loading started and Loading finished. Each is one press, once, and then shows its time. They are the three moments a carrier’s accounts desk argues about when a lorry was kept waiting, so they are worth pressing as they happen.

Following and releasing a collection

Open Goods Out → Collections to see who is expected, waiting for a bay, loading, loaded or gone. Each row opens the collection’s record and shows its next action. Goods Out keeps a small summary linking to this page; Yard & gates still shows every vehicle on the site.

Record that loading has finished before pressing Release the load. A collection is not checked against incoming delivery lines. Once released, sign the vehicle out when it leaves. The driver’s phone follows the collection through loading and release; neither the phone nor the gate screen asks a collecting driver to declare an incoming load.

The loading check

1. 1When the lorry is on the bay, open the order and press Despatch (loading check).
2. 2Every line is listed with what was ordered. Type what actually went on. Anything under the order is recorded as a short against that line, and the screen says how many lines are short before you commit.
3. 3Add the vehicle registration, the haulier (Own fleet unless someone else is carrying it) and a note if needed, then Confirm despatch.

The order is then despatched. The customer’s ordering site shows the despatch, what was sent against each line and anything short, and their Despatches list shows the delivery note, with who signed for it once it is signed. In the office, the order’s despatch panel prints the delivery note.

Loads without an order: the loader app

On the floor, the loader app on a phone or scanner has three jobs across the top: Pack, Load and Deliver.

• Load: tap the customer, then scan every box as it goes on. A box that must not leave stops you there, before it is on the lorry. Check the boxes and the weight, add the vehicle registration and the haulier if it is not your own vehicle, and press Despatch this load.
• Pack: scan every finished pack going into a box and close it. The phone shows the new box code in large type (it does not print a box label yet). Write that code on the box, because it is what Load scans onto the vehicle.
• Deliver: every load out on the road. At the customer's door the driver taps the delivery and the customer signs for it on the phone.

A despatch made on the loader app can be tied back to an order afterwards: open the order and press Attach despatch note, pick the note from that customer’s list, and the order is marked despatched.