Descartes Dock

Appointment Scheduling ™

Optimise Receiving Operations for Inbound

Shipments to Distribution Centers and Warehouses

This collaborative tool enables carriers, suppliers and distribution center personnel to create and approve dock door appointments. It streamlines the process by distributing scheduling responsibilities from the warehouse to carriers and suppliers, and ensures all supply chain partners have visibility into requested, scheduled and rescheduled dock appointments.

Solution Area

Transportation Management

About the Product

Descartes Dock Appointment Scheduling solution, part of Descartes’ cloud-based Transportation Management suite, provides integrated visibility, control and performance reporting for inbound shipments.

TOP BENEFITS

• Improved Inventory Turn
• Effective Planning and Resource Utilisation
• Increased Warehouse Efficiency

Seamless Integration with TMS and WMS Systems

Integrating Descartes Dock Appointment Scheduling with other Descartes or third party transportation solutions enables carriers to simultaneously accept tenders and book appointments, automatically assign doors for both inbound/outbound loads, and plan routes based on door availability. Integration with WMS allows customers to electronically prepare receiving activities and allocate physical resources to unload, validate and accept shipments into either their DC or cross dock.

Standing appointments can be created for high volume carriers/suppliers with regular deliveries to ensure consistency.

FEATURES

Online Appointment Scheduling

Appointment Audit Trail

An electronic history of all appointment changes and related communication can be easily accessed.

Milestone Notifications

Email notifications are sent to carriers, vendors and warehouse staff at different milestones within the process.

BENEFITS

Optimised Hours of Service

Wait times for load/unload activities, return trips and detention charges are minimised with better warehouse traffic management.

Advanced Shipment Visibility

Greater visibility into inbound shipments helps companies better manage inventory levels.

Enhanced Partner Collaboration

Compliance and performance metrics can be shared with trading partners to negotiate more effectively.

Automated Data Collection

Data can be analysed regularly to uncover process improvement opportunities and provide insights into bottlenecks.

Recurring Appointments