Wal-Mart Grocery DC tips and tricks

Hello all, my name is Eric and I'm writing a few articles on here for the benifit for the drivers who run Wal-Mart live unloads to grocery DC's. If you run drop and hooks this will not really pertain to you with a few exceptions.

I've seen it all in the last 15 years
working in the OTR transportation receiving office for a WM DC. I've seen drivers get arrested, physical fights between drivers, clerks getting physically assaulted, tons of accidents in the yard, a driver 2 years ago even died in his truck from a heart attack-and so on and so on, you get my drift.

But enough about me. There is a common consensus that delivering to WM DC's are sometimes a pain in the ###. The bueacracy and politics at a Wally World DC is insane I must admit. I am going to give you drivers some insight to get around some of these rules and mind sets of the clerks and receiving managers and DC politics so you will be a little bit more prepared, and hopefully successful with your live unloads.
BEING LATE:
Most all DC's are different regarding their rules. This because rules of the DC can be changed by the GM or transportation manager even if it goes against corporate policy sometimes. For example, most DC's will not allow you to stay on the property if you run out your clock. Some do allow you to stay on the property, like the DC I work at have no problem with it. Some even allow you to be hooked up to the trailer while being unloaded, most don't though.
One thing they do all have in common though, is thier late policy.
All grocery DC's will allow you in within an hour past your appointment time. If they turn you away within that hour window call your dispatcher and tell them to immediately call Wal-Mart's corporate headquarters in Bentonville and have them call the DC to let you in.
Wal-Mart, especially at the DC level, is hoping your late for your appointment. What did I just say your're thinking? The reason why the dock manager's love late trucks is because it get's Walmart out of the LOS detention payments if the dock takes more than 2 hours to release you and will hardly miss a 2 hour on a late truck. Also, when your're late, the dock has no set time to get your load done. They can take all the time they want and they will take advantage of that for the most part, especially for huge breakdown loads. This because at the end of the shift, the managers have to make a certain LOS (level of service) percentage to make their goals. Too many unloads missed, taking over the 2 hour mark, and they will be questioned by the GM about it the next day.
If your load is going to be late, simply call the DC and ALWAYS talk to the dock manager, not the office clerk, and tell him your going to be late. The drivers who do this have a much better chance on being unloaded. The drivers who just show up late will likley be turned away most of the time, especially for those of you who are delivering huge, large breakdown loads from Kraft, Gen Mills, Schrieber and Pinnacle Foods.
For most meat and fresh produce loads, they are pretty lenient on you if your comming in late due to the time sensitive nature of this type of commodity.
If you are late, expect to be there for a long time unfortunately. If you go in and yell at the clerks you will be there even longer, I guarantee that!
It is WM policy to not mark you late if you make it into the hallway by your appointment time. It is also WM policy that you have a 10 minute grace period after your appointment time to be on time at the window. Lot's of DC's do not follow this policy and will mark you late even though you have been in line forever. If the clerk says they cannot change the time, and that it starts when you are in front of them, they are outright lying to you. They CAN change it to reflect to say you were on time. Like I said above, they will find any reason that they can get away with to mark you late!

If you guy's have any questions, I will be happy to answer them!

In my next article I will explain some tips and tricks on how to stay on the property at Wal-Mart DC's if you're out of hours.

 

All WM DC's are going to be going to no lumper fees soon. Many have already started. We are going to be direct billing for the fee.
I agree, if you can do drop and hooks, do it!

 

Never heard of a DC that only had an auto response without an option to talk to somebody. We have other DC's calling, employees calling, stores, many vendors and carrier dispatchers calling checking the status on their loads, drivers always calling to check their appointment times, late drivers calling..we are on the phone ALOT.

 

That's what I meant. Drivers and I won't have to deal with lumper crap anymore.
Also, another thing coming down the pipeline is we are going to be going to paperless BOL's. The vendor or the carrier in instances will be electronically sending the BOL's to the DC. When the driver arrives we will already have the BOL's. The paperwork will be electronically signed and immediately sent to the carrier's company and vendors after everything is accounted for. What I have heard is that when you show up you will be unloaded, then off you go, no need to wait for WM to notoriously take forever. The DC's that are mildly testing this right now are very successful in getting even the 100 pallet breakdown loads, you know, the ones that take all day to recieve, less than an hour to release the driver from the time he or she entered.