Manage them as a sequence with an owner. Write down every step between the gate cabin and the last weighbridge slip. Name one loading lead per shift who may stop any fill. Brief each driver and loader on the steps that touch them, on your rolls or not. Then read each upset for the step that got skipped.
Dispatch is where your product meets people the plant barely knows. A transporter sends a different driver each week. The driver brings a cleaner who has never seen your bay. A contract loader is covering for someone absent. All of it happens at the riskiest moment, with compartments open, hoses live and a truck impatient to leave.
The sequence from gate to gate
- 1
Gate entry
Gate pass checked against the day's dispatch plan. Licence and vehicle papers seen. Matches, lighters and phones handed in wherever your rules require it.
- 2
Briefing and gear
A two-minute talk at the gate cabin: route to the bay, speed limit, where to stand, what the siren means. Shoes, goggles and gloves looked at.
- 3
Tare weight
First weighbridge slip printed and pinned to the dispatch sheet.
- 4
Vehicle check at the bay
Wheel chocks placed, engine off, earthing clamp on. Each compartment inspected for residue and the previous load noted. Bottom valves shut and dry.
- 5
Filling
The loading lead confirms grade, source tank and lab release before any valve opens. Nobody works the top platform alone.
- 6
Seal and label
Domes and outlets sealed, seal numbers written on the sheet. Drums bunged, lids clamped and labels matched to the order.
- 7
Gross weight and papers
Second slip printed, net weight checked against the order. Invoice, lab certificate and the emergency card go to the driver.
- 8
Sign-off
Driver and loading lead both sign. The truck leaves the bay only once both names are on the sheet.
Where loads usually go wrong
- A dome lid left unlatched, or an overfill because the dip was read on the wrong compartment.
- The earthing clamp parked on the gantry rail instead of the chassis.
- A manifold valve left open from the previous transfer, so product reaches the wrong hose.
- Seal numbers on the truck that do not match the numbers on the sheet.
- A drum bung cross-threaded, a lid gasket missing, or a pallet stacked one tier too high for the forklift tines.
- A tare taken with the cleaner and his toolbox still on board, giving a net weight that looks short at the customer.
What the loading lead owns
The loading lead is not simply the longest-serving loader. He owns the bay for the shift. He holds the dispatch plan, sets the order of trucks, refuses a tanker that fails the compartment check and stops a fill the moment something looks wrong. Pick someone calm with drivers, firm without shouting, and able to read a lab release and an order without guessing. Put those powers in writing through a written role for the bay lead, so nobody argues them at midnight.
- Authority to refuse a vehicle, written into the role.
- Authority to stop a fill midway, backed by the plant head every single time it is used.
- A named deputy for leave days, nights and festival weeks.
- A short daily word with dispatch and the lab, so a held release is known before the truck arrives.
Briefing people you do not employ
You cannot appraise a transporter's driver, but you decide who enters your bay and on what terms. Keep a gate register showing who was briefed, by whom and when. Brief the same driver again on each visit. It costs two minutes, and repetition is what makes the bay rules stick. Contract loaders need more: an induction before their first load, an experienced partner on the bay, and the same field checks your own loaders face.
If a transporter keeps sending drivers who refuse the briefing or the gear, write to the transporter and stop accepting those vehicles. That call belongs to the plant head, not to a gateman on the night shift.
Who should the loading lead report to?
Usually the production or plant head, not sales or accounts. Dispatch pressure comes from customers, and the person who can stop a load must not answer to the person chasing the invoice. Give dispatch and sales a daily call, so promises match what the bay can actually load.
How do we handle late trucks and long evenings?
Tankers turn up when transporters choose, and the crew waits. Without a rule, the same two loaders stay back every evening. Agree a loading cut-off, a rota for late duty and a clean way to log the extra hours. Help with a late-duty rota and its hours records keeps the burden from landing on the same pair.
How do we train a new loader?
Start on drums, not tankers. Teach the dispatch sheet first, then the bay walk, then filling under the lead's eye. Clear each stage before the next. The ladder used to grow tank farm hands at a solvent plant suits a loading crew well.
What should an upset review look like?
Short and factual. Which load, which step, who stood at the bay, what made the step easy to skip. Hold it while memories are fresh, with the loading lead present and the driver's account if you can get it. Change the step, the sheet or the roster, then explain the change to the crew at the next shift start. The hub for chemical makers sets dispatch beside handover and hazard habits, and the deep-dive on loading and dispatch covers what these upsets cost.
If you would like the dispatch sheet and the loading lead's role drafted for your own bay, outline your bay, products and shifts for us.
