# Inbound TL Advice



## TwistedVisionary (Feb 21, 2021)

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. 👍


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## Hardlinesmaster (Feb 21, 2021)

@allnew2, please assist.


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## Hardlinesmaster (Feb 21, 2021)

Tips for pushing freight faster?
					

I’m in the toys department and usually get 3-4 fully stacked u boats a day including repacks(about 11 of them in total avg). Just wondering what kind of tips you guys have to make this go a tad bit faster. Do y’all de trash in the back and then push the items out or do you guys carry the boxes...




					www.thebreakroom.org


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## qmosqueen (Feb 21, 2021)

Pray pray a lot for miracles ask other TLs ETLs to help push. they are the only ones who care.


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## allnew2 (Feb 21, 2021)

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 ?


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## Caliwest (Feb 21, 2021)

qmosqueen said:


> 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.


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## Serabears (Feb 24, 2021)

TwistedVisionary said:


> 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.


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## allnew2 (Feb 24, 2021)

Serabears said:


> But I also spend almost the entire time with them


So not much changed if you have to spend the entire time with them to get that unload goal.


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## allnew2 (Feb 24, 2021)

I think I might have the only store where the inbound team do not have work centers and are only unload


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## vyrt (Feb 24, 2021)

allnew2 said:


> 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.


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## TwistedVisionary (Feb 24, 2021)

allnew2 said:


> 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.


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## TwistedVisionary (Feb 24, 2021)

qmosqueen said:


> Pray pray a lot for miracles ask other TLs ETLs to help push. they are the only ones who care.


Believe it or not I get help from my ETL and TL and so far we are doing good. My ETL is a monster and knows what it’s like to be in my shoes.


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## allnew2 (Feb 24, 2021)

TwistedVisionary said:


> 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 .


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## NightHuntress (Feb 25, 2021)

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.


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## allnew2 (Feb 25, 2021)

targetuser said:


> 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


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## Serabears (Feb 25, 2021)

allnew2 said:


> 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.


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## allnew2 (Feb 25, 2021)

Serabears said:


> 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


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## TwistedVisionary (Feb 25, 2021)

allnew2 said:


> 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.


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## TwistedVisionary (Feb 25, 2021)

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.


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## allnew2 (Feb 25, 2021)

TwistedVisionary said:


> 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 .


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## MrT (Feb 26, 2021)

allnew2 said:


> 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.


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## allnew2 (Feb 26, 2021)

MrT said:


> Its got worse at my store unload team all have areas and only have 4 hours shifts


You can’t . It’s impossible even if all you have a truck a day.


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## MrT (Feb 26, 2021)

allnew2 said:


> 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.


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## TwistedVisionary (Feb 26, 2021)

MrT said:


> 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.


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## MrT (Feb 26, 2021)

TwistedVisionary said:


> 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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## TwistedVisionary (Feb 26, 2021)

allnew2 said:


> 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 .


I’m jealous that you can unload a 2500 piece trailer in 2 hours. To add, 2 to 3 trailers a day?! That sounds crazy. My goodness your store has to be $80+ mil. It sounds like you’re doing a solid job especially with all these trailers and a fast sort as well.


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## allnew2 (Feb 26, 2021)

TwistedVisionary said:


> I’m jealous that you can unload a 2500 piece trailer in 2 hours. To add, 2 to 3 trailers a day?! That sounds crazy. My goodness your store has to be $80+ mil. It sounds like you’re doing a solid job especially with all these trailers and a fast sort as well.


 85$+ with an off-site . But then again I’m not being short staffed and inbound is just that inbound . It wasn’t like that in the beginning unload use to take 8 hours and I was like it can be done better . If I have a triple I do 2 trucks at once . Then break then the third truck . It took about a week for me to get it to that timeline . However I did lose some people when I started . But things got better the inbound started to see the whys behind everything that was asked to do .


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## CleanMyBackRoOm (Feb 26, 2021)

allnew2 said:


> I think I might have the only store where the inbound team do not have work centers and are only unload


*raises hand* our unload team gets done early and just pushes whatever they grab first lol


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## JohnSith373 (Feb 26, 2021)

allnew2 said:


> I think I might have the only store where the inbound team do not have work centers and are only unload


My store is like that. Inbound team isn’t in a dedicated workcenter, wherever the store needs help in push. Only the bulk/unloader is somewhat dedicated to paper since he deals with the paper pallets but he’s not a DBO.



allnew2 said:


> So not much changed if you have to spend the entire time with them to get that unload goal.


How did you manage to leave the inbound team without the TL? 5 sorters, unloader, and TL at the start of the line has been the staple at our store. I think with 5 bays on the line at a $85 million store


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## allnew2 (Feb 27, 2021)

JohnSith373 said:


> How did you manage to leave the inbound team without the TL? 5 sorters, unloader, and TL at the start of the line has been the staple at our store. I think with 5 bays on the line at a $85 million store


With a strong team and electric skate .


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## Curious George (Mar 16, 2021)

allnew2 said:


> 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


That many team leaders, and one in Entertainment?  Man leave some for the rest of the Target stores why don't you...


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## allnew2 (Mar 16, 2021)

Curious George said:


> That many team leaders, and one in Entertainment?  Man leave some for the rest of the Target stores why don't you...


We do have 2 specialty etls , and they have 4 Tl. Plus 2 vml


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## Curious George (Mar 16, 2021)

Sounds like you're fully staffed.  Congratulations on that.


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## BackupTL (May 2, 2021)

allnew2 said:


> 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


A TL for just entertainment? With all those TLs, that's some mighty crazy misbalancing of ownership. Nuts lol


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