Is Reefer pretty much always Appointment?

Walmart allows you in the gate one hour early and hopes the driver shows up then. There are no penalties unless you are past your appointment time. It will go on your company record, you might be a work in and give up rights to detention. You might be a reschedule. It depends on the Walmart. All appointments are give a confirmation number. With out that number you are not getting in the gate. I've been given wrong confirmation numbers before and had to reschedule.

You are not arrived until you are docked and have your paperwork stamped at the receiving window. From the time you arrive at the guard shack it takes about 20 minutes to get docked and to the receiving window. If your appt is 7am and you get your paperwork stamped 6:59 is all that matters. But sometimes you get delayed at the window if there are drivers ahead of you and a lazy clerk is working. That's why getting there an hour early keeps you safe. Most Walmarts I've seen will schedule drivers in blocks of 6-8 drivers an hour at the same time and then there are ones that might schedule 2 drivers every 15 minutes. It's one or the other. So you might get to the window with 5 other drivers trying to get checked in.

Walmart is all about procedures. Follow them and everything goes smoothly. Step outside their procedures and dung hits the fan.

I don't know why your appointment would be changed to 48 hours earlier? My appointments are usually set with just enough time to get there or the night before. If you are sitting two days to deliver or have that opportunity, something is wrong with scheduling. Walmart appts are usually calculated and set when you pick up.

 

Right, except for when it isn't 3000 or 4000 items or they're running behind for whatever reason and it takes a couple hours to get a door and then another hour before they even start to unload. I've been at both ends of the process. Mostly this end, but what do I know?

 

One time I had a trucking company tell me they were going to start billing me for making trucks wait past their appointment time. I said fine by me, and I will start billing the trucking company for every hour they are late for appointment times. Let's just say I came out on top, lol. It works both ways, trucks are late just as often as they are early, yet when they're early they always want to get unloaded right away.

 

Reefer is a type that most loads are cross docked after inventory, so appointments are necessary to reload out orders to local trucks. I did a good bit of logistical work to include dock management, if the loads inbound exceed storage capacity it makes life bad and cramps the docks.

One place I know first hand not to dally with is Sam's Club, they are a little funny about times and can make you wish to goodness that you kept that appointment.

 

yeah I probably didn't explain that well... In produce the delivery date is really an mabd (mist arrive by date), so when assigned an inbound produce load you can deliver early as long as you schedule it. It's a little known rule that was changed 2years ago. Many brokers and shippers don't even know. But if you call the appointment clerk, you can schedule in early. I am a shipper, so I might give 7-8 loads to a broker all leaving Monday to arrive in Wm DCs on Thursday or Fridays. Well if some of these loads end up on a team, they can go in early... It's within the rules and doesn't really matter

 

Been running reefer for Marten for a month now, I expected much worse. 9 times out of 10 I arrive at the receiver up to 4 hours early as I don't goof off when I should be running. I have yet to have a receiver turn down an early load and am often unloaded before the scheduled appointment. Same for loading. I always arrive early unless given instructions that shipper/receiver will not take you early. And the automatic detention is nice after 2 hours you get $20/hour paid in 15 min increments and the scuttlebut is that will be changed to after 1 hour. Longest I ever sat was 3hr45min getting loaded and got paid for it. And even with eobr and 65mph governed I still averaged 3k miles a week over the last 3 weeks without using a reset.

 

Many carriers do a lot of drop/hook business with the likes of Cargill and Dollar General and this makes almost half of the loads and unloads NOT require a set appointment. All depends on the carrier and who they conduct most of their business with, and how large their trailer pool is.

 

I always found quite a few would take you early but of course some are strict on the appointment time. I've had a guard shack tell me before that I was 20 minutes early and I couldn't come in until 15 minutes early and made me leave, turn around and come back. Some take it way too far. If you run produce I wouldn't even bother looking at appointment times because they're almost always BS that your company or a broker came up with and the cooler could care less.

When it was my first time going somewhere I always tried to go early. The worst they could say is no. One I went to a lot would take you even more than 24 hours early. You might not get unloaded instantly but they'd put you in a dock at least. If you show up somewhere that has no guard just go give them the paperwork and don't mention appointments. Many times they'll just do it.