Yard management & dock scheduling software.
DockOptima replaces spreadsheets, phone calls and gatehouse paperwork with a single scheduling platform your team, your hauliers and your drivers all work from — so loads land on time and detention charges stop landing at all.
- -41%
- average driver wait
- 10k+
- dock movements / month
- < 1 day
- site go-live
Daventry DC · Tuesday 14 Oct
42 appointments · 5 bays · avg dwell 38 min
Trusted by operations teams across manufacturing, retail and 3PL
One system from the booking request to the gate barrier
Most yards run on four disconnected tools. DockOptima joins scheduling, carrier self-service, gatehouse control and analytics into one record per load — visible to everyone who touches it.
Plan the day before it plans you
Drag-and-drop appointments across bays, see live status on every slot, approve carrier requests inline and spot the pinch point at 14:00 before it happens.
Daventry DC · Tuesday 14 Oct
42 appointments · 5 bays · avg dwell 38 min
Know what is on site, right now
Gate events, trailer locations and live dwell timers — no clipboard, no radio.
Hauliers book themselves in
Self-registration, live slot availability, document upload, ETA updates and two-way chat — with your booking rules enforced automatically.
Live on your first site this week
No hardware. No integration project. Open a browser, configure a site and start booking.
- 01
Configure your sites
Bays, load types, opening hours, 24h days, bank holidays, PPE requirements and site instructions. Minutes, not a consulting project.
- 02
Invite your hauliers
Carriers self-register, find your site in the directory and book against real availability — instant confirm or request-to-book, your rules.
- 03
Run the day live
Drivers self check-in by QR, the gatehouse clears them, bays update in real time and everyone sees the same status.
- 04
Measure and tighten
Dwell, on-time arrival, turnaround and carrier scorecards feed straight into your weekly ops review.
Everything an enterprise yard actually needs
Dock scheduling
Drag-and-drop calendar across bays and sites with conflict-free slotting and recurring series.
Carrier portal
Self-service booking, live availability, document upload and ETA updates for every haulier.
Driver self check-in
Mobile QR check-in with site instructions, PPE requirements and live queue position.
Gate management
Gatehouse console for arrivals, departures, ID checks and trailer verification.
Yard management
Live trailer inventory, yard locations, dwell timers and demurrage exposure.
Driver & carrier chat
Two-way messaging on the appointment record — no more chasing phone numbers.
Appointment management
Eight-stage journey, audit log, claims, photos, gate sheets and .ics exports.
Analytics & reporting
Dwell, on-time %, throughput and carrier scorecards, exportable to your BI stack.
Built for the way your sector actually loads
The same platform, tuned to the constraints that matter in your operation.
Manufacturing
Line-side deliveries sequenced to production, not to whoever arrives first.
Retail
Peak-season volume without peak-season queues at the RDC.
Food & beverage
Temperature windows, hygiene checks and traceable arrival records.
3PL logistics
Many clients, many carriers, one scheduling standard across every site.
Distribution
High-throughput RDCs with strict slot discipline and live dock utilisation.
Cold storage
Protect the cold chain with tight dwell control and priority chilled bays.
Automotive
JIT and JIS inbound flows with sequence-critical delivery windows.
Construction
Site deliveries booked, permitted and PPE-briefed before the lorry leaves.
The queue is the cost. Remove the queue.
Every hour a trailer sits in your yard is money leaving the business — in detention, in overtime, in missed cut-offs. DockOptima attacks all three.
Stop paying detention
Timestamped arrival, gate and departure records settle carrier disputes in seconds.
Level the labour curve
Slot rules spread volume across the shift instead of stacking it at 06:00.
Free your ops team
No inbox scheduling, no phone calls, no whiteboard — carriers self-serve inside your rules.
Prove performance
Carrier scorecards and on-time data you can take into a commercial review.
Based on customer benchmarks: ~40% reduction in dwell time and ~70% reduction in scheduling admin. Your results will vary — book a demo for a facility-specific model.
Numbers your board will actually ask about
Dwell time, on-time arrival, turnaround, bay utilisation and carrier performance — measured automatically from the operational record, not from a spreadsheet someone maintains on Fridays.
38 min
Avg dwell
94%
On-time arrival
81%
Bay utilisation
Throughput by day
Last 7 days · all sites
Detention hrs
12.4
-31%
Late arrivals
6%
-4pts
No-shows
1.2%
-0.8pts
What changes in the first quarter
“We cut average driver wait from 71 to 38 minutes in the first six weeks. Our hauliers noticed before we told them.”
Operations Director
National grocery RDC · 6 sites
“The gatehouse used to run on a paper book. Now every arrival is timestamped and I can settle a detention claim in about ten seconds.”
Site Manager
3PL distribution centre
“Carriers book themselves in. My planners got about two hours a day back each, and the calendar is finally accurate.”
Transport Planner
Chilled food manufacturer
“Detention invoices used to be an argument. Now we send the gate record with the dispute and the conversation is over in one email.”
Head of Supply Chain
Building materials group · 11 sites
“Our 06:00 stack has gone. Slot rules spread the inbound across the shift, so the same team handles more volume without overtime.”
Warehouse Manager
Ambient distribution centre
“Drivers scan the QR at the barrier and get their bay and site rules in their own language. Reception queue is basically gone.”
Site Operations Lead
Automotive inbound hub
Questions ops teams ask us first
Pricing built around your sites
Every operation is different — number of sites, bays, volumes and carriers. Send us a short email and we will come back with a straight, itemised quote. No per-booking fees and no charge for carrier accounts.
- Unlimited users and carrier accounts
- UK/EU hosting, GDPR compliant
- No per-booking or per-driver fees
- Onboarding and support included
See your own yard, running on DockOptima
A 30-minute walkthrough with a real operations specialist — we will model your bays, your volumes and your carriers, not a generic demo account.
UK-based team · Response within one business day · No credit card