Playbook · For owners, dispatchers and customer service leads
No load enters planning without a complete record
Orders arrive by email, phone, text, EDI and spreadsheet. Half of them are missing something: the weight, the dock hours, the appointment, the reference number. Dispatch plans them anyway, then chases the customer an hour before the pickup window. One gate between the order and the plan stops that. Six steps you can start on Monday.
Why the gate works
Gated intake like this usually means 50–90% fewer operational errors, and 25–50% less manual status reporting.
Ranges from our KPI library: what this kind of work usually moves, not a promise for your company. Read the carrier's story
Write down what a complete load is
Use one list: customer, pickup and delivery addresses, dock hours at both ends, appointments, commodity, weight, dimensions, piece count, hazmat status, equipment type, reference numbers, customer priority and billing terms.
Put it on one page. If your freight needs more, such as temperature or border papers, add it. Do not drop a field because customers find it annoying.
Split intake from planning
Intake owns the record: it takes the order, checks every field and chases the customer for what is missing. Planning owns the match: driver, truck, trailer and route. Execution watches loads on the road. Exceptions get handled on their own.
These can be the same people on a small team. What matters is doing one job at a time, not planning a load while answering a phone call about another.
Keep one load record
Every order, from every channel, goes into one place: the load record in the system you already use. Not an inbox, not a text thread, not a sticky note on the dispatch board.
A field is done when it is in the record, not when someone remembers it.
Close the gate
From Monday, planning takes only loads with every field complete. No exceptions for rush days, because rush days are when half-complete loads do the most damage.
An incomplete order goes back to intake with a note of what is missing. Intake tells the customer the same day, in plain words: we can cover this load as soon as we have these fields.
Look at the incomplete list twice a day
Keep one list of orders waiting at the gate, with the missing fields and the customer contact beside each one. Go through it first thing in the morning and again after lunch.
Same-day and urgent loads go to the top. A missing appointment on a load picking up tomorrow is today's job.
Check what slipped on Friday
Count the loads this week that went wrong because a fact was missing, and which field it was. Count the orders by customer, too. If one customer sends incomplete orders every week, fix it with them: a standard order form, or a call with their shipping desk.
A long queue at the gate means intake needs help, not that the gate should open.
Every field a load needs, with an owner beside each one. Copy the checklist.
How one carrier got dispatch out of one person's head. Read the carrier's story.
A printable version is on its way.
Keep reading
Part of our Operations & Automation work for Logistics & Industrial, built as Field Ticket & Dispatch.
Want the gate checking itself?
Book a call. We will look at how your orders reach dispatch and set up the gate with you.
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