An average TAT of six hours says nothing. Eight timestamps per truck say exactly where it waited: the gate, the weighbridge, the yard, the dock or the paperwork.
Truck turnaround time (TAT) at a plant is the time from a vehicle reaching the gate to leaving it. Loading is usually a small share of it; the rest is waiting. To cut it, measure each stage separately.
| # | Stamp | What the gap after it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Outside gate (arrived) | Queueing outside: arrivals not scheduled |
| 2 | Inside gate (documents, safety check) | Gate formalities and safety checks |
| 3 | At dock (dock assigned) | Yard wait: no free dock or material not staged |
| 4 | Loading started | Loader or equipment availability |
| 5 | Loaded (sheet and photos) | Loading speed |
| 6 | In transit (gate out, LR) | Paperwork after loading |
| 7 | Unloading at destination | Transit time |
| 8 | Completed (POD) | Unloading and POD delays |
The dwell between stamps, by plant, shift and hour, shows the real bottleneck. If trucks wait between “inside gate” and “at dock”, more loaders will not help; dock scheduling and staging will.
SCM for Manufacturers stamps eight gate stages per truck on the supervisor’s handheld, turns the gaps into dwell by plant, shift and hour, and shows a live dock board, a bottleneck funnel and a congestion heatmap. Operation types (loading, unloading, customer pickup, export) each have their own dwell norms. This gate module is live in production. Related: truck load planning.
The time a vehicle spends from reaching the plant gate to leaving it, including gate formalities, weighbridge, yard waiting, loading and exit paperwork.
Measure each stage separately, schedule arrivals, stage material before the truck reaches the dock, use a live dock board and automate gate identity with ANPR or RFID.
It records vehicles in and out, checks documents and safety, assigns docks and timestamps each stage, so turnaround can be measured and improved.
See it on your own data. SCM for Manufacturers puts the plant gate, carriers, RDC stock, cold chain and OTIF on one control tower. Book a 30-minute working session with an engineer.
