Yard appointments: a field guide

By Beatrice Lund · 2026-10-08 · Guides

A booked slot and a physically free dock are two different promises. In the Hull desk's recent review of yard appointments, the useful question was which decision the next shift could make with the information already available. We started with a small group of routine journeys rather than changing the entire weekly plan.

Reserve a small recovery window between long unloads, and keep vehicle length visible to the yard marshal. The duty planner owns the initial entry, while the receiving shift confirms the handover. Any correction stays beside the original reference so that the office and the yard can work from the same account of the journey.

Count arrivals that miss their slot separately from unloads that overrun, so the remedy reaches the correct part of the process. We keep a short exception note for each sampled job, with a clear date and an owner. This makes the review a practical conversation about tomorrow's work instead of an argument over whose spreadsheet was most recently updated.

The change is ready to keep only after two full handovers work without extra explanation. Beatrice Lund recommends reviewing the routine after a quiet week as well as a busy one: a process that depends on one experienced dispatcher being present will not survive an ordinary holiday rota.

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