Here’s the hard truth, that every minute a truck waits at a dock or a container sits at a port is money left on the table. With real-time mobile-based supply chain visibility, you can change what’s happening and stop letting your vehicles or vessels (and income) stay still.
Maybe it’s a backlog at the warehouse, a port jam, or a delayed appointment window. Whatever the cause, dwell time, the period cargo spends waiting instead of moving, has become one of the biggest drains on supply chain efficiency today.
It disrupts schedules, causes the capacity to be congested, results in detention fines, and leaves everyone, shippers, carriers, and warehouse teams, playing a game of victimization.
But what if you could spot the obstacles as they happen? What if you could track average dwell per facility, alert your carriers in real-time, and plan smarter pickups, all from your phone?
That’s exactly what Supply Hoop’s mobile app empowers you to do. With seamless supply chain integration and a user-friendly dashboard, you’ll have full visibility into your dwell time metrics, so you can keep your cargo moving and your customers happy.
What is Dwell Time?
The period of time that a shipment stays at a facility while its cargo is unloaded is known as dwell time. This vehicle could be anything that transports goods from one location to another, such as a truck, vessel, or cargo plane.
There are two main types of Dwell Time:
Trucking Dwell Time
This happens when drivers are stuck waiting at a facility, either to pick up or drop off freight. Sometimes it’s due to late loads, inefficient dock scheduling, or long check-in queues. Carriers may charge detention fees, but truthfully, they’d rather be on the road than sitting still.
Container Dwell Time
This occurs at ports or railyards, where shipping containers sit after being unloaded from a vessel but before being picked up for the next leg. Delays here can cascade quickly, especially during peak shipping seasons.
Why Dwell Time Matters More Than You Think
Dwell isn’t just a minor inconvenience, it affects almost every corner of the supply chain:
- Higher detention costs for shippers and forwarders
- Missed delivery windows and unhappy customers
- Wasted fuel and driver hours, leading to lower margins
- Congestion at ports and docks, increasing turnaround times
- Reduced carrier loyalty (drivers avoid facilities with a reputation for delays)
How to Measure Dwell Time
To reduce dwell, logistics teams need accurate, real-time data on:
- Number of loads and appointments per facility
- Average wait time per truck
- Percentage of late carrier arrivals
- Percentage of non-compliant (over-threshold) dwell events
- Historical trends by location, customer, carrier, and shipment type
Our solution automatically tracks and visualizes all of this for you, on a mobile dashboard. You can set compliance thresholds, monitor performance by site, and instantly drill down into problem areas without toggling between tools.
How Supply Hoop Helps You Reduce Dwell Time
Here’s what real-time visibility through Supply Hoop’s mobile app can help you do:
1. Pinpoint Obstacles Instantly
See which warehouses or ports consistently cause the longest waits, filter by carrier, shipment type, or even time of day. No more gut-feel decisions, and you get the data right on your phone.
2. Alert Stakeholders in Real Time
Running late? Shipment held at the port? Supply Hoop sends proactive alerts via mobile push and even WhatsApp integration, so everyone, drivers, warehouse teams, and forwarders, is in the loop.
3. Analyze Delay Trends and Act
Review daily, weekly, and monthly dwell reports. Spot if Wednesdays are always slow at a particular location. Maybe it’s an equipment issue, or maybe it’s scheduling. Either way, you’ll have the insight to fix it.
5. Balance Load Volume More Effectively
We can help you plan better by tracking historical peak times, so you avoid sending multiple trucks to congested facilities at once.
What Causes High Dwell Time, and How Supply Hoop Solves It
High dwell time often stems from everyday supply chain challenges like load complexity, carrier congestion, and manual check-in processes. For instance, mixed-pallet or multi-customer loads take longer to unload, especially when warehouse teams aren’t prepared. Supply Hoop addresses this with SKU-level visibility, so teams can plan ahead and handle complex loads efficiently. Similarly, when too many carriers arrive at once, it creates dock backups.
Other major delays come from outdated check-in procedures and port congestion. At ports, containers often sit idle waiting for release, our app keeps you updated with live ETA/ATA tracking, so you can plan the next leg of the journey without guessing. In short, Supply Hoop turns dwell time from a blind spot into a controllable metric.
What Gets Measured Gets Managed
With Supply Hoop, you don’t just guess how long cargo sits. You measure it, compare it, and reduce it.
Plus, all your dwell time metrics are:
- Synced with CargoWise or your current ERP
- Accessible on iOS and Android
- Protected by enterprise-grade encryption
Whether you’re a regional forwarder managing 100 daily shipments or a global 3PL supporting multiple ports and clients, we give you the real-time visibility you need, without the complexity.
Conclusion
In logistics, not everything goes according to plan. But when your team has real-time insight into delays, driver wait times, and container status, you can move faster, plan smarter, and keep the freight flowing.
With Supply Hoop, you don’t have to wait for your freight to move instead you make it move.
Do you want to quicken delivery and reduce dwell time? Take the uncertainty out of logistics visibility by scheduling your free Supply Hoop demo.
