A booking page carriers actually use
Send drivers a link, not a phone number. They pick a door and a window, and double bookings are impossible because the page only shows what is free.
Version 0.1 · Columbus, Ohio
Every truck knows its door. Dockhand books it.
Independent warehouses still schedule inbound trucks with a whiteboard, a shared spreadsheet and a lot of phone calls. Dockhand is the smallest useful replacement we could build: a booking page for carriers, a live door board for your dock lead, and a text message that goes out when a trailer is ten minutes away. It does very little, and that is the point of shipping it this month.
Free for the first ninety days. Setup takes one afternoon on your dock.
Real docks running the first version
Photographs from the four sites that tested Dockhand before we let anyone else in.
Five things Dockhand does, and nothing else yet
We cut the roadmap down to what a dock lead actually touches in a shift. Everything else waits for your feedback.
A door board for the whole dock
One screen shows which trailers are waiting, unloading or finished, with a clock for each door that turns amber when a slot runs long.
A text when the trailer is close
Dockhand pings your lead ten minutes before arrival and pings the driver when the door opens, so nobody idles with the engine running.
A detention log you can hand over
Every arrival, door change and departure is time-stamped. When a carrier disputes a wait, you send one page instead of arguing from memory.
Shift handover without a meeting
The evening lead opens the board and sees what the morning lead promised, including the notes that used to live on a sticky pad.
Four weeks of live trucks
- Trailers booked through the page
- 1,260
- Average wait removed per truck
- 34 min
- Warehouses on the pilot
- 10
- Double-booked doors since week two
- 0
How we put Dockhand on your dock
- 01
We walk your doors
Someone from Dockhand spends an afternoon at your site, counting doors, timing a few unloads and talking to the people who run them.
- 02
You choose the rules
Set window lengths, which doors take which freight, and who is allowed to override a booking when a driver shows up early.
- 03
Carriers get the link
We help you send the first links to your five busiest carriers and answer their questions on the phone for the first week.
- 04
We review after two weeks
Together we read the detention log, move what is not working and write down what you wish the tool did next.
Said on the dock
“The first Monday, a driver told me it was the first time anyone had asked him which door he wanted. He booked the next four loads the same day.”
“I do not need a platform. I need to stop writing arrival times on my hand. This does that, and it was running before lunch.”
“Dockhand is rough in places and the founders know it. They also fixed the thing I complained about before I finished my coffee.”
What dock leads ask first
What does Dockhand cost after the free period?
Pricing for version 0.2 is a flat 149 dollars per month per site, with no per-door or per-truck fees. We will tell you well before your free ninety days end.
Do carriers have to create an account?
No. A driver opens your link, picks a window and gets a confirmation by text. Dispatchers can keep a login if they like seeing their upcoming loads.
Does it connect to my warehouse system?
Not yet. Version 0.1 stands alone on purpose. A simple export to a spreadsheet is available and a real integration is next on the list.
What happens if the internet goes down?
The door board keeps showing the last known state and queues updates until the connection returns. The paper log in the office is still the backup.
Can I try it on a single door?
Yes. Many sites start with the two busiest doors and add the rest after a week.
Give your dock lead back an hour of every morning.
Pick a day for a dock walk and we will bring the laptop, the printed door board and a box of donuts.
Book a walk of your loading dock
Tell us about your site and how trucks reach it today. We answer every request the same day with a few dates that work.