Under GDP and GMP, what is not documented did not happen. Yet reefer trucks carrying 2 to 8 degree products sit outside goods receiving while the arrival time is written down by hand. With scheduled dock slots, sensitive goods are prioritised, every driver is verified at check-in and every step gets a timestamp that holds up in an inspection.
Eight patterns that create risk and cost at pharmaceutical manufacturers and wholesalers without scheduled dock slots.
GDP requires that deliveries needing special storage are prioritised at receipt and that the cold chain is documented. A reefer truck queuing behind ambient goods eats into the product's time out of refrigeration, and a temperature excursion means a QA investigation, quarantine and at worst the write-off of a pallet worth millions.
Medicines are theft-prone goods, and controlled substances demand tight control. Yet drivers are let in with a handwritten visitor log and a verbal “you know where to go”. Nobody can show afterwards who was there, when, and that the rules got through.
The inspector asks when the delivery arrived, who received it and when unloading was complete. The answer sits in a binder, an email thread or the memory of whoever had the shift. Documentation that cannot be verified becomes an observation in the inspection report.
GDP requires a risk-based assessment of transport and follow-up of outsourced activities. Without timestamps per delivery, the assessment becomes a questionnaire to the carrier instead of facts about punctuality and time at door.
Many deliveries at once cause congestion in the receiving area, and material due for quarantine pending QC release risks being mixed with other goods. Staffing is sized for the peak, and the rest of the day the dock stands empty.
The wholesaler's trucks must leave for pharmacies and hospitals on fixed schedules, and the manufacturer's released batches must go out on booked transports. A truck loaded late misses its window, and the next chance is tomorrow.
Hauliers bill for waiting time, but you have no timestamps to challenge the invoices with. Without documentation it is word against word, and the cost lands on you.
GDP applies the same way in every EU country, but routines differ from site to site. At inspection, every site must be able to show the same traceability, regardless of country and language.
Two products in one system: Flow Management handles booking and flow, Arrival Management handles arrival, from check-in to completion.
Define goods types, for example 2 to 8 degree cold chain, room temperature and high-value goods, and which doors may receive them. Restrict certain doors to approved carriers and set hourly capacity caps. Bookings outside the rules are stopped in the portal, and staff are warned if a truck is called to the wrong door.
The driver checks in on a paired tablet at reception: the booking code or order number is matched to the booking, the mobile number is verified with an SMS code, and your security and site rules are displayed and acknowledged with a timestamp, AI-translated into the driver's language. The acknowledgement is stored together with the exact version of the rules that was shown. You always know who is inside the gate.
Arrived, at door, unloading complete: every status is logged with the time and who recorded it. If a time is corrected afterwards, the reason and the person are stored, and every change to a booking stays in the history. You document temperature in your own systems; Dockai provides the time around it.
Punctuality, time at door and detention minutes per carrier, week by week. Evidence for the transport risk assessment, for monitoring outsourced activities and for the next contract negotiation.
Arrivals are spread across the day according to your rules, and staffing is planned on real volume. Daily runs are entered once as recurring bookings, and outbound loadings are booked the same way so trucks leave on time.
The same system, rules and follow-up across all sites, each site in its local time. Bookings, status logs and change history can be fetched via API into your own systems. Dockai runs today at warehouses in Sweden and factories across Europe.
Even flow instead of staffing for the worst hour. Existing customers report up to 20% lower staffing needs.
Every arrival, waiting time and deviation is logged per carrier and booking.
Carriers book themselves. The hours spent on email and phone are freed up.
Dockai manages the meeting between carrier and loading dock and does not replace your quality system, your temperature monitoring or your serialisation checks. How the system should be classified is decided in your own system inventory. We provide documentation on access control, logging and change history so that the assessment goes quickly.
No. You document temperature with your own loggers and procedures. Dockai provides the timestamps that show how long the goods were out of refrigeration: arrival, start of unloading and completion.
Yes. Each door can be restricted to selected carriers, goods types and shippers. A carrier that is not approved cannot book the door, and staff are warned if a truck is called there anyway.
Dockai manages booking and arrival. Release, quarantine, batch numbers and serialisation live in your existing systems. An API connection is available when you want to fetch bookings and status logs, but Dockai delivers full effect standalone. Read more in the dock scheduling guide.
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