Yard days

We come for the scramble at bay three, not a tidy parade of vans.

A route performance review includes two ordinary operating days. This page is the working picture of those days so a depot manager knows who will stand where, and what not to change.

Warehouse loading bays with parked trailers along a concrete apron

Before first light

We arrive in time to see the first grocery or parcel van still being built, not after the gate has already missed the printed time. High-visibility clothing is ours. We need a dry corner, a named contact, and permission to write times without collecting driver names for a file.

At the gate and the bay

Queue length, the moment a rigid actually docks, and whether two vehicles can work at once are the facts that later sit on the delay-minute chart. A polite extra loader on a visit day will move those facts. Please do not add one.

On the round

Two ride-alongs, chosen because they are typical, not because they finish early. We note actual arrivals against the window on the sheet, waiting at chained doors, and empty running after the last drop. We will not reroute the driver to make the chart kinder.

What we leave on the desk

Disciplinary files, live-screen logins we do not need, and any plan to ‘show the best of the yard’. Bring the planned sheet and the completed sheet for the same day. Paper is enough.

After we leave

Charts are drawn in Glenmore. The briefing returns to your yard or the planner’s office. If you want more days on the concrete, that is an extra yard day at the published rate, not an unspoken extra in the review.

Read the flagship review

Propose two ordinary dates