Undocumented Unloads

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Undocumented Unloads

I remember walking into the warehouse for work at 1pm for a shift that was not going to end until between 11pm and 12am.? As a night floor merchant, the 10 - 11 hour days were my dreadful reality 5 to 6 times a week.? I couldn’t nail down a consistent exit strategy for the day, as I was heavily reliant on when the tractor trailer would arrive from our distribution center to deliver our nightly load.

When the nightly load did arrive, we had to first determine if it was an ambient load or a refrigerated load.? I had direct responsibility for the frozen foods department, so I would always open up the trailer door and hope it wasn’t for me.? The ambient loads were always easier, as we could unload them early, verify them accurately, and leave them for the morning crew. YAY!? The refrigerated loads could not be unloaded until the warehouse closed to customers, as we had to move pallets immediately to their final destination to keep the cold chain intact.? These were typically the unloads that kept us to 12am. What did I learn after 400 plus unloads in this position?

I learned that approximately 25% of the trucks that I unloaded had some form of inventory discrepancy, including the following issues:

• An extra pallet of product was on the truck; undocumented
• A pallet was missing from the truck that was showing in the bill of lading
• Product was damaged; top pallet crushed bottom pallet during transport
• Trucks showed up with product meant for another location
• Product inside the cases did not match the product case images
• Product inside the case was not the correct count per product case
• Product outside of acceptable temperature readings

Now, I was younger in my career and looking back, I wish I was more into direct communication of the above issues with the distribution center.? The truth is I left little notes around for the receiving manager and return-to-vendor (RTV) clerk to solve these mysteries.? Staying past midnight was not on the agenda to handle undocumented unloads.

#retail #merchant