FAQ on loading dock time slot booking

A system where every loading and unloading gets a booked time at a defined loading dock, instead of trucks arriving unannounced. Carriers book for themselves in a portal within your rules, staff see the day's schedule in real time, and the outcome is logged per carrier. The full mechanics are explained in our dock scheduling guide.

The price depends on the number of facilities and which parts you use; see the pricing page for the tiers. The number that matters, though, is the difference against what today's handling costs: staffing for peaks, coordination time and contracts without data. Run your own numbers in the ROI calculator; for most facilities the system pays for itself on staffing alone.

Days, not months. The basic setup is creating your facility, loading docks and booking rules, inviting the carriers and starting with the biggest flows. Full effect builds as the booked share of deliveries grows over the first weeks.

By making booking faster than the phone call and giving booked trucks priority at the dock. Start with your biggest carriers, a handful often account for most of the volume, and phase in the rest. Carriers already meet time slot booking at more and more receivers and prefer a clear portal to a phone queue.

They are handled at check-in and slotted in where the schedule has gaps. Booked trucks get priority, which in itself raises the booked share over time without forcing anyone.

No. Dockai delivers full effect standalone: bookings, check-in, call-up and analytics work without integration. An API is available for connecting to WMS, TMS or ERP when the need arises.

Yes. The principle is the same for loading docks, ground-level areas, yard areas and side loading: a booked time at a defined place. You name and configure the places as they actually look at your site.

Everything the driver meets, check-in, call-up to the dock and SMS notifications, happens in the driver's own language via AI translation, whatever language that is. Your staff work in the system's English interface, and nobody needs to interpret at the desk.

No. Check-in happens on a tablet or computer in your reception area, and all communication to the driver, call-up to the dock, thank-you message and custom messages, goes via ordinary SMS in the driver's own language. No app, no account and no data connection needed on the driver's phone.

After check-in the driver automatically joins the queue and can wait in the cab instead of at the desk. The queue is shown in real time on a screen, with the number waiting and who is next. When a dock becomes free, the operator picks the dock and calls the next truck in by SMS, with restrictions so the right truck ends up at the right dock. Read more under Arrival Management.

Yes, it is built into the check-in. Your safety and protection rules are shown in the driver's own language via AI translation and must be accepted before check-in completes. The acceptance is documented per driver and occasion, which gives traceability if something still happens on site.

Yes, it is built for multi-site. Every facility has its own loading docks, opening hours, rules and its own time zone, all time zones are supported, while follow-up can be done centrally. Dockai runs today at warehouses in Sweden and factories across Europe.

Planned versus actual outcome: punctuality per carrier, waiting times, time at dock, deviations and trends over time. It is the basis for both daily operations and the next freight contract negotiation.

A standalone queue system only handles trucks that have already arrived: they get a place in the line and wait. Dockai works both ends. The time slot booking spreads arrivals in advance so the queues are small to begin with, and the built-in digital queue with SMS call-up handles the trucks that still wait. No extra hardware needed: the driver's ordinary phone and a screen in the building are enough.

Support in English and Swedish, and every customer has a named, dedicated customer success manager who knows your site, your carriers and your goals. We work closely with our customers and build the solution together with them: your needs at the loading docks shape how the product develops. Read more about us.

All hosting and storage run on Microsoft Azure within the EU region. Data is encrypted at rest (AES-256) and in transit (TLS 1.2+), access is controlled with role-based permissions (RBAC), and personal data is handled under GDPR within the EU.

Yes. The system works from a single loading dock and up, and the setup is small: create the dock and the rules, invite the carriers and start booking. Even a smaller facility gets rid of the phone bookings and unannounced arrivals from day one, and if you later grow with more docks or facilities the system grows with you without a switch.