Home / Product
How it works
A dock schedule that runs itself
Three things happen on every load: a carrier books a slot, a driver checks in, and someone eventually needs proof of when it all happened. Dockhand handles all three without new hardware at the gate.
Carriers self-schedule
You send one link per carrier, or embed a booking widget in your own carrier portal. They see only the bay windows your rules allow — by load type, by dock, by day.
- Recurring appointments for regular lanes
- Blackout windows for shift changes and maintenance
- Automatic overbooking prevention per bay and per hour
| Window | Bay type | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 05:30–06:00 | Dry van | Full |
| 06:00–06:30 | Dry van | Open |
| 06:30–07:00 | Reefer | Open |
| 07:00–07:30 | Dry van | Open |
Drivers check in without a kiosk
A driver arrives, taps the link texted to them, and confirms they're on site. If your gate already has a geofence, check-in happens automatically as the trailer enters the yard — no app install for the driver.
- Works on any phone browser, no app download
- Optional geofenced auto check-in for repeat carriers
- Bay assignment texted the moment a door opens
Driver check-in
Meridian Freight · Trailer #MF-4471
Checked in 06:04 · Assigned Bay 04
Est. wait: 6 minutes
Every timestamp is kept, automatically
Arrival, check-in, door-open, door-closed, departure — each one is logged the moment it happens, tied to the carrier and the appointment. When a detention dispute lands in your inbox, the answer is an export, not a memory.
Event log — Trailer #MF-4471
05:58 — Arrived at gate
06:04 — Checked in
06:06 — Assigned Bay 04
06:11 — Door opened
07:02 — Door closed
07:08 — Departed
Integrations
Fits the stack you already run
Dockhand reads and writes appointment data to the systems your team already lives in, so scheduling isn't one more screen to check.
WMS
Two-way sync with major warehouse management systems.
TMS
Appointment status flows back to the carrier's transport management system.
SMS
Driver notifications by text — no app required on either end.
API
A documented REST API for teams who want to build on top.
Security
Carrier data stays scoped to the load
Carriers see only their own appointments and their own trailers — never another carrier's schedule, rates, or yard activity. Every account action is logged and attributable to a person.
Role-based access
Dispatcher, yard, and carrier roles see different slices of the same board.
Audit trail
Every schedule change is timestamped and attributed.