Inbound TL Advice

Joined
Nov 7, 2018
Messages
16
I was looking for any advice any fellow Inbound TL’s have at the moment. I understand hours are tough especially for this month however I am always expected to be 100% with the truck and if not have a plan to who is going to push later in the day. Any advice is appreciated which can range from the sort process to sales floor operations. 👍
 
 
Pray pray a lot for miracles ask other TLs ETLs to help push. they are the only ones who care.
 
First few questions .
How many trucks a day do you have ? How long does your unload take? How many people on the line ? How is your sort? If sort is accurate your stock will be a walk in a park. Do you utilize the trailer replenishment report? Are you trapping your bulk ?
 
Pray pray a lot for miracles ask other TLs ETLs to help push. they are the only ones who care.
ASANTS. Work 2 yrs. same store up to 40 hrs a week and can count up to 10 X s other TL or ETL push any meaningful amount. They ll knock out half a boat and leave it on the floor the rest of the day. They all stick to them selves and carry out own pet projects.
 
I was looking for any advice any fellow Inbound TL’s have at the moment. I understand hours are tough especially for this month however I am always expected to be 100% with the truck and if not have a plan to who is going to push later in the day. Any advice is appreciated which can range from the sort process to sales floor operations. 👍
Have team members give goal times for their vehicles. See who's actually near the 1 minute per box. I even have my DBO's communicate when they are pulled off their process for helping guests so that way other leaders and myself are aware of how busy they are that day and have reasons of why they may be behind.

Edited to add: how long are your unloads? I am getting into 2300's under 2hours finally after changing my line team. But I also spend almost the entire time with them. My 2 hours turns into 30-45 mins gained for each TM to their own work centers.
 
I think I might have the only store where the inbound team do not have work centers and are only unload
I wish I could get that. My dbos get so worn out by the end of their break after shoving these trucks filled with nonsense they take forever to work easy areas and then that area just gets rolled and piled up. Then I have to have conversations and it’s just no fun for anyone.
 
First few questions .
How many trucks a day do you have ? How long does your unload take? How many people on the line ? How is your sort? If sort is accurate your stock will be a walk in a park. Do you utilize the trailer replenishment report? Are you trapping your bulk ?
Only 1 truck a day. As of right now our unloads with 4 sorters and a thrower are totaling 2 hours and 30 minutes for a 2000 piece trailer. I understand we are short a sorter but I sort on the line as well so that’s five. I know the Sort and Stock guide requires at least one more sorter but hours are light. However, we’ve been getting hit with light trailers so we are getting lucky and finishing at 1.75 hours with the same amount of people at 1700 piece trailers. I do believe my sort is accurate for my inbound team. Since my inbound team has an extra 2 hours after the unload I send them to departments that are heavy that I don’t think the DBO’s will finish. This has been working out atm. Yes I do utilize the replenishment report and I do trap any bulk but not all of it. I trap anything that’s worth trapping so I’m not going to trap 10 small toy boxes just to use this as an example.
 
Only 1 truck a day. As of right now our unloads with 4 sorters and a thrower are totaling 2 hours and 30 minutes for a 2000 piece trailer. I understand we are short a sorter but I sort on the line as well so that’s five. I know the Sort and Stock guide requires at least one more sorter but hours are light. However, we’ve been getting hit with light trailers so we are getting lucky and finishing at 1.75 hours with the same amount of people at 1700 piece trailers. I do believe my sort is accurate for my inbound team. Since my inbound team has an extra 2 hours after the unload I send them to departments that are heavy that I don’t think the DBO’s will finish. This has been working out atm. Yes I do utilize the replenishment report and I do trap any bulk but not all of it. I trap anything that’s worth trapping so I’m not going to trap 10 small toy boxes just to use this as an example.
I get that ours are right but inbound shouldn’t be the one to short staff from . I would actively seeking out to hr and sd to make it a priority having a full staff with inbound you could support the store even more that way. I think you should give him a run for his/her money and say schedule me 5 sorters and let me show you just how much we can accomplish . That will give the dbos times to do their zone and 141 while you guys support with push. Inbound team is only schedule 4.5 hours at my store double and triples . 2400-2500 is done within 2h. I never need to extend to finish the trucks . However I’m always asking to extend them to support with push. I had a canceled truck this week and when the dbos for p2 showed up all they had to do was their reshop zone and 141.because truck was pushed by inbound .
 
We don’t even have a “inbound team” only. Our inbound team are also DBO’s. Have 1 “floater”. So makes it tough when they are scheduled a 4 or 5 hr shift and spend a min of 2 hrs unloading, break and then supposed to zone, 1:1’s and truck and come 100% clean by end of shift.
 
We don’t even have a “inbound team” only. Our inbound team are also DBO’s. Have 1 “floater”. So makes it tough when they are scheduled a 4 or 5 hr shift and spend a min of 2 hrs unloading, break and then supposed to zone, 1:1’s and truck and come 100% clean by end of shift.
I don’t think many stores have inbound only that I see on here . But then again when I hear about down days in in shock because I don’t know what that feels like .
Inbound tl1 owns Plano , truck and seasonal, inbound tl2 owns truck and toys , gm1 tl1 own otc, hba, hbo baby Hardlines ., p1 gmtl2 owns pets paper chem and plastics. Gm2 tl1 owns beds bath, gm2 tl2 own b block , gm3 owns furniture , h&h and home decor. Entertainment has its own tl .
And inbound is just that inbound double trucks and triples . So it would be impossible to have them as dbos since they are only schedule 4.75 h
 
So not much changed if you have to spend the entire time with them to get that unload goal.
It's a big change. My 2 hours adds up to 30 minutes for each person. So 30x6 is still an hour gained, but if you're looking at it vehicles wise, that's essentially a vehicle each. That's 6 vehicles that weren't getting done before. It also allows me to ensure they are each being held accountable, sorting properly, and working safely.

It's a new team I've put together and their achieving better results than my old team. Every day I'm able to take more steps away from them and soon they won't need me there always. But the amount of respect and hustle we have for each other is huge because the team knows I'll be there whenever they need it. I've thrown, I've sorted, and I've supported. They know my expectations and I've shown it's possible.

Even a small gain is still a gain. Work with your team and remove their root causes for issues.
 
It's a big change. My 2 hours adds up to 30 minutes for each person. So 30x6 is still an hour gained, but if you're looking at it vehicles wise, that's essentially a vehicle each. That's 6 vehicles that weren't getting done before. It also allows me to ensure they are each being held accountable, sorting properly, and working safely.

It's a new team I've put together and their achieving better results than my old team. Every day I'm able to take more steps away from them and soon they won't need me there always. But the amount of respect and hustle we have for each other is huge because the team knows I'll be there whenever they need it. I've thrown, I've sorted, and I've supported. They know my expectations and I've shown it's possible.

Even a small gain is still a gain. Work with your team and remove their root causes for issues.
Don’t get me wrong I’m not trying to take away your achievements . However when I made that statement was because you said you still spend most of the time with them . With a new team yes you have to train , teach and hold accountable. But throwing and sorting takes away from your leadership tasks . I never ever trained new team member for my line instead I gave them to my team to train them. I would spend time and let them know the expectations and making sure safety is non negotiable. If bulk pallets are read my unloader calls the dbo for paper to take them out, same think for water pallets .
I guess I see myself in you a bit when I was doing everything as you do throwing , sorting etc until I was told I can no do any of it because I have an inbound team however I wasn’t short staff as you are and I can see the need to be more on the line . That’s why I’m saying that you need to get a full team on truck to be able to have some free reign
 
Don’t get me wrong I’m not trying to take away your achievements . However when I made that statement was because you said you still spend most of the time with them . With a new team yes you have to train , teach and hold accountable. But throwing and sorting takes away from your leadership tasks . I never ever trained new team member for my line instead I gave them to my team to train them. I would spend time and let them know the expectations and making sure safety is non negotiable. If bulk pallets are read my unloader calls the dbo for paper to take them out, same think for water pallets .
I guess I see myself in you a bit when I was doing everything as you do throwing , sorting etc until I was told I can no do any of it because I have an inbound team however I wasn’t short staff as you are and I can see the need to be more on the line . That’s why I’m saying that you need to get a full team on truck to be able to have some free reign
It looks like on the upcoming schedule I have that extra unloaded so there’s that. I’m usually the one taking out all the bulk off the trailer. Since I’m sorting I position myself at the very beginning of the P1 side of the line to see how far we are in the trailer and to look at any upcoming bulk to get ready with a pallet jack.
 
Once done with my unload I have one inbound tm knock out domestics, one in furniture, one doing domestic repacks, and two floaters who go to any department that comes in heavy. Believe it or not we have 1 GM ETL and 2 GMTL’s (this includes myself) for a store that between the $42 mil through $48 mil dollar store. I know we’re short a GMTL but it has been like that for a year so I have no idea what’s going on there. We do not have a Pfresh so no market TL so I’m pretty much in charge of half of GM. Anyways, as of late we’ve doing pretty good in terms of our unload. Holding team members accountable is definitely helping our team out and every now and then I’ll hold a huddle before we unload to talk about safety and extra tips and tricks. To add, we do have a Storage and Utility DBO who comes in at 6am to do their OFO’s and truck push because that’s usually the stuff that’s easy to knock out and the one that fills up our receiving area the quickest. I have to admit this is a solid idea for those that are wondering.
 
Once done with my unload I have one inbound tm knock out domestics, one in furniture, one doing domestic repacks, and two floaters who go to any department that comes in heavy. Believe it or not we have 1 GM ETL and 2 GMTL’s (this includes myself) for a store that between the $42 mil through $48 mil dollar store. I know we’re short a GMTL but it has been like that for a year so I have no idea what’s going on there. We do not have a Pfresh so no market TL so I’m pretty much in charge of half of GM. Anyways, as of late we’ve doing pretty good in terms of our unload. Holding team members accountable is definitely helping our team out and every now and then I’ll hold a huddle before we unload to talk about safety and extra tips and tricks. To add, we do have a Storage and Utility DBO who comes in at 6am to do their OFO’s and truck push because that’s usually the stuff that’s easy to knock out and the one that fills up our receiving area the quickest. I have to admit this is a solid idea for those that are wondering.
For what you have it’s a very solid idea . I give you props for making it work with what you have . Getting unload to under 2h is a big accomplishment 👏 keep it up .
 
I think I might have the only store where the inbound team do not have work centers and are only unload
Its got worse at my store unload team all have areas and only have 4 hours shifts 😑. Like how is a baby dbo supposed to work the truck unload and finish thileir routine in 2 hours its impossible. We just ot a new sd so stiff has been scrambled around and we lost half ofnour unload team. The plan is to get them out of areas but rn seems we are stuck and falling behind.
 
You can’t . It’s impossible even if all you have a truck a day.
Oh i know. Idk what happened in my store tbh. I was only tl ofbsfs during 4th quarter till now and didnt really pay attention to gm as much. Now i realise that there have been some serious corners cut and its catching up to us. Normally we would only have 4 trucks a week rn but since pandemic a lot of stores have closed near me that we are way busier then ever with a truck everyday and absolutely no hours to spare, cant replace call outs, and givimgnextra days off to tls left and right just to manage payroll.
 
Oh i know. Idk what happened in my store tbh. I was only tl ofbsfs during 4th quarter till now and didnt really pay attention to gm as much. Now i realise that there have been some serious corners cut and its catching up to us. Normally we would only have 4 trucks a week rn but since pandemic a lot of stores have closed near me that we are way busier then ever with a truck everyday and absolutely no hours to spare, cant replace call outs, and givimgnextra days off to tls left and right just to manage payroll.
If it helps all of our P1 DBO’s are scheduled 6.25 hours and all of them finish except for maybe 1. P2 DBO’s are only in for 4 hours. If I have to support with a vehicle then I will and it’s going to be for P1. I know stores in our district our doing horrible with hours and I’m lucky to not be one of those. I’m interested to see how other stores are scheduling their inbound team and P1 DBO’s.
 
If it helps all of our P1 DBO’s are scheduled 6.25 hours and all of them finish except for maybe 1. P2 DBO’s are only in for 4 hours. If I have to support with a vehicle then I will and it’s going to be for P1. I know stores in our district our doing horrible with hours and I’m lucky to not be one of those. I’m interested to see how other stores are scheduling their inbound team and P1 DBO’s.
We consistently do not have all dbos scheduled we mostly do not schedule anyone on the dbos day off so we are missing 2-3 dbos a day l. Im not one to complain and try and just let it ride but we are making sales goals everyday and feel like we are being punished for doing well.
 
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