Warehouse metrics
One number for every trailer,whichever carrier it belongs to.
Trailer dwell time is tracked from the moment a truck arrives in the yard to the moment it pulls away, off the same telematics feed regardless of the fleet or manufacturer behind it. WareBee lands that reading in the same event model as every scan on the floor, so a trailer's dwell sits next to the pick or putaway order it was actually waiting to serve, not on a separate yard-management screen nobody cross-checks.
See what's backing up the yard
What it is
Arrival to departure, on one scale for every carrier.
On WareBee's digital twin, trailer dwell time runs from arrival to departure for every trailer at every door, captured off the telematics unit most trucks already carry rather than a manual log at the gatehouse. Because the reading comes off the same kind of feed regardless of fleet or manufacturer, a mixed carrier yard reads on one comparable scale instead of one operator's estimate sitting next to another's guess.
The number moves with what the trailer was actually waiting for, not with how full the yard looks. Door assignment logic, how much staging or putaway work is queued in front of that door, and whether the trailer arrived ahead of or behind the wave or dock plan meant to receive it all shape how long it sits. A trailer dwelling against work that's genuinely in progress is a different situation from one dwelling because nobody sequenced the door for it.
What counts as a long dwell time for a yard running scheduled drop-and-hook appointments, where a trailer is often gone before anyone touches it? Something completely different from a yard doing live unloads, where the driver waits at the door for every pallet. WareBee's answer is to score your trailer dwell time against a peer set matched on order profile, SKU count and footprint, so the yards in the comparison are the ones actually built like yours.
What moves this number
What a trailer is actually waiting on.
Each one is measured on your digital twin from data you already generate, so a long dwell reading has a cause before it becomes a yard-wide complaint.
Door assigned by availability, not by what's staged behind it
The next open door gets the next trailer, even if it's about to be blocked by outbound staging.
Door assignment can weigh what's already staged in front of each door and how long its current occupant still needs, not just which doors show free on the board, so a door about to be blocked doesn't get handed to a trailer that will just queue behind the same problem.
Putaway or picking not yet ready to receive it
A trailer can arrive exactly on schedule and still wait behind work that hasn't caught up.
Task scheduling tracks which putaway or pick work a trailer's cargo actually depends on, so dwell against work that's genuinely still in progress reads differently from dwell caused by a door nobody sequenced ahead of the truck's arrival.
Staging lanes running as informal storage
Pallets waiting to move off the dock sit in staging for so long they start behaving like inventory.
Occupancy gets measured zone by zone rather than as one site-wide total, so a staging lane that's quietly become overflow storage shows up as a capacity number like any other zone, and the trailer queueing behind it has a specific cause rather than a general sense that the yard is busy.
Arrival and departure captured off the truck itself
Telematics on the trailer, not a note at the gatehouse, is what puts an exact reading on how long it sat.
The feed comes off the telematics unit most trucks already carry, so a mixed fleet of different ages and manufacturers still reads on one comparable scale, and a truck's dwell time lands right next to the pick or putaway order it was actually waiting to serve.
A dwell reading only means something next to what it was waiting for.
A single trailer dwell time figure for the yard hides the difference between a door that's genuinely busy and one that's badly sequenced. Once yours is read against a peer set matched on order profile, SKU count and footprint, the next question is which doors, shifts or carriers are driving the figure up, and telematics landing in the same event model as every scan means the answer is the specific pick or putaway work a trailer was waiting on, not a guess.
From there it's a sequencing change, not a bigger yard. Dock-door scheduling, task scheduling and wave timing already run together on the digital twin, so a different door assignment or a re-sequenced putaway queue can be tested against the same trailer and order mix already causing the queue, before anything changes for a driver waiting at the gate. Once approved, the sequence reaches the WMS as the door assignments and tasks it already runs on.
- Trailer dwell time read against a peer set matched on order profile, SKU count and footprint
- Dwell sits next to the pick or putaway work a trailer was actually waiting to serve
- Door assignment and task sequencing tested on the twin before a live yard changes
Questions
Trailer dwell time, from the gate to the door.
How exactly is dwell time measured?
From the moment a trailer arrives in the yard to the moment it pulls away, captured off the telematics unit most trucks already carry rather than a note taken at the gatehouse. That reading lands in the same event model as every scan on the floor, so a trailer's dwell sits right next to the pick or putaway order it was actually waiting to serve, which is what separates a busy door from a genuinely congested one.
Do I need telematics on every trailer to get a reading?
No. A first dock schedule builds from arrival and departure scans, door assignments and putaway task data your yard and WMS already record, so dwell time and door assignment logic work from day one without a telematics project. Trailer telematics, where your fleet already carries them, sharpen the reading further and let a mixed carrier fleet read on one comparable scale, but they refine a working schedule rather than being required to start one.
Is there a dwell time that counts as too long?
Only against other yards, never against a fixed number — trailer dwell time depends too heavily on how a yard is built and scheduled for a flat threshold to mean anything. WareBee's peer set matches yards on order profile, SKU count and footprint first, so a 'long' reading only means something once it's set against yards handling a genuinely similar mix of trailer types and turnaround needs, and not against an unmatched figure with no comparable yard standing behind it.
Does dwell time on its own tell me whether a door is congested?
Not by itself. A busy door with every trailer dwelling against real, ready work is a well-loaded operation having a normal day, while a busy door with trailers dwelling against work that isn't ready — a wave still running, a putaway crew somewhere else — is congestion. That's why dwell time is read next to dock-door utilisation and the work each trailer was actually waiting to serve, rather than judged as one number on its own.
Can it handle a mixed fleet with different telematics setups, or none at all?
Yes. Whichever transport a carrier's telematics offer, or none at all, the arrival and departure events normalise into the same schedule the twin already runs on, so a yard with trucks from several manufacturers and several fleets still reads on one comparable scale rather than one operator's estimate sitting next to another's. A trailer with no telematics still gets timed off the gate scan and the door assignment record.
Does a revised door-assignment or putaway sequence make it into the WMS?
Yes. Once a supervisor approves a revised door assignment or putaway sequence, it becomes the tasks and dock schedule the WMS runs on for that shift, so the change that cleared the queue on the twin is the one the yard actually works to. Trailer arrivals and departures then flow back into the same event model, so the next time inbound volume spikes, the schedule is built from what genuinely happened at your doors last time.