It's 9:15 on a Tuesday morning. You're in the middle of scheduling a receiving appointment when your phone rings. It's a driver. He needs the dock number. You give it to him and hang up.

Ten minutes later, a different driver calls. Same question.

By noon, you've answered a version of the same call six times. Dock number. Gate code. Receiving hours. Who to ask for. Every call is a two-minute interruption that breaks your focus, adds nothing to your day, and could have been avoided entirely.

What if the drivers already had all of that before they picked up the phone?

That's exactly what Delivery Locate is built for. It's a free platform where facilities can publish their delivery instructions once — dock numbers, receiving hours, gate procedures, vehicle restrictions, photos — and make them available to every driver, dispatcher, and logistics coordinator who needs them. Permanently, passively, at no cost.

This post walks you through adding your facility's listing step by step, and shows you what separates a listing that actually saves time from one that barely helps.

Quick answer: To add your facility to Delivery Locate, create a free account, click Add Listing, enter your address, receiving hours, dock number, check-in procedure, and upload photos. Your listing goes live immediately and can be edited any time.

Why publishing your delivery instructions is worth 10 minutes of your time

Every phone call from a driver who can't find the dock is a small tax on your day. Individually, two minutes feels trivial. But a mid-size distribution center receiving dozens of inbound shipments per week can accumulate hours of staff time each month answering questions that a published listing would eliminate entirely.

That's the obvious win. The less obvious one is what happens when drivers don't get the information they need.

A driver who arrives without a dock number circles the lot, blocks lanes, or pulls up to the wrong gate. That delays their check-in, backs up your dock schedule, and in worst-case scenarios results in a missed appointment window — which means rescheduling, redelivery fees, and inventory that doesn't arrive when your operation needs it.

Drivers who arrive informed show up on time, pull to the right door, and check in cleanly. The whole process moves faster. Your dock stays on schedule. Your receiving team spends less time waving confused drivers around the property.

And once your listing is live, it works without any effort from you. No ongoing management, no subscription, no maintenance — unless your details change. Every driver who searches for your facility from that point forward finds exactly what they need before they leave the yard.

What you'll need before you start

Getting your information together before you open the form makes the whole process faster. Here's what to have on hand:

• A free Delivery Locate account (takes about 60 seconds to create)

• Your facility's full street address

• Receiving hours — specifically for inbound freight, not general business hours

• Dock door number(s) used for deliveries

• Check-in procedure: guard gate, intercom, open lot, front office sign-in, or some combination

• Vehicle restrictions, if any: maximum trailer length, lift gate requirements, no-idle zones, PPE requirements

• A contact name and direct phone number for drivers to call on arrival

• Two to four photos of your dock entrance, gate, and lot layout (smartphone photos are fine)

Worth knowing before you start: You don't need every field filled in perfectly to publish. A listing with your address, dock number, and receiving hours is already more useful to a driver than no listing at all. Publish what you have, then come back and improve it. The form saves your progress and every edit goes live immediately.

Step-by-step: how to add your listing

Step 1: Create your free account

Go to deliverylocate.com and click Register in the top navigation. Enter your name, email address, and a password, then verify your email. The whole process takes under a minute.

If you already have an account, log in and skip to Step 2.

Step 2: Navigate to Add Listing

Once logged in, click Add Listing in the main navigation, or go directly to deliverylocate.com/listing-create. You'll land on a form with clearly labeled sections for each piece of information. Everything is on one page — no multi-step wizard, no confusing tabs.

Step 3: Enter your facility name and address

Use the name that drivers would search for — the name on your building, your widely known trade name, or a combination of brand and location (e.g., "Frito-Lay Whitestown" rather than a parent company's legal entity name). Drivers search by what they know, not by corporate registration.

Double-check the street address carefully. This is what populates the map pin on your listing, and a wrong address means drivers navigating to your location will be sent somewhere else. If your facility has a dedicated truck entrance that differs from the main address, note that entrance in the description field in Step 6.

Step 4: Set your receiving hours

Enter the hours your dock accepts inbound freight — not your general business hours, and not your shipping hours if those differ. If your facility operates on different receiving schedules by day of the week (common for facilities that don't accept freight on weekends, or that have reduced hours mid-week), spell that out clearly.

If your facility requires a scheduled appointment before a driver can check in, flag it here with a note on how drivers book — whether that's through a carrier portal, by calling your scheduling line, or through a third-party system. A driver who shows up without an appointment at an appointment-only facility wastes everyone's time. One sentence of warning prevents it.

Step 5: Add dock and check-in details

This is the most valuable section of your listing — the information drivers are most likely to search for and least likely to have.

Enter the dock door number or numbers assigned to inbound deliveries. If different carriers or freight types use different doors, note that distinction. If your dock assignment changes based on load type or scheduled appointment, say so and include instructions on how drivers find their door on arrival.

For check-in procedure, describe exactly what a driver should do when they pull onto your property. Examples:

• "Pull to the guard gate on the north side of the property, present your BOL, and wait for assignment."

• "No gate. Pull to dock row on the east side of the building. Check in at the receiver's window, door marked 'Receiving Office.'"

• "Press intercom button at the main gate. Give your load number. Wait for the gate to open, then proceed to the assigned dock."

Add any vehicle restrictions that apply: maximum trailer length, whether sleeper cabs are permitted in the lot, lift gate requirements for facilities without loading docks, and any safety requirements like mandatory safety vests or steel-toed boots.

Step 6: Add a description and special notes

The description field is where everything else goes — the information that doesn't fit a structured field but makes a real difference to a driver navigating an unfamiliar facility.

Write it in plain, direct language, as if you're texting directions to a driver you know. Useful things to include:

• What to say to the gate guard

• Who to ask for at the receiving window

• Where to park if the dock is occupied

• Tight turns, low clearances, or lot quirks that catch drivers off guard

• Any seasonal changes to hours or procedures

• The name and number of someone to call if the driver has a problem on arrival

The more specific this section is, the more useful your listing will be.

Step 7: Upload photos

A photo is worth more than any amount of written description when a driver is trying to identify your entrance from the road at 5 a.m.

Upload at least two to four photos: the dock entrance or dock row, the gate or check-in point, and a wider lot view showing the approach from the street. Smartphone photos taken during normal daylight are perfectly adequate — you don't need anything professional.

Photos are one of the biggest differentiators between listings that get high view counts and those that don't. The Frito-Lay listing on Delivery Locate, one of the platform's most-viewed listings at over 2,200 views, includes photos that let drivers identify the correct entrance before they're close enough to read the signage. That's the practical value a photo provides.

Step 8: Review and publish

Take 30 seconds to preview your listing before submitting. Check that the address pin is in the right place on the map, that your receiving hours are correct, and that your dock number and check-in instructions read clearly to someone who has never been to your facility.

When you're satisfied, submit. Your listing goes live immediately — no review period, no approval queue.

Copy the direct URL to your listing and move on to the next section.

What makes a great listing vs. a basic one

Any listing is more useful than no listing. But there's a meaningful difference between a listing that confirms a driver's dock number and one that gets them from the highway to the dock door without a single question.

A basic listing gives a driver the essentials: your name, address, receiving hours, and dock number. They arrive knowing roughly where to go and when.

A great listing gives a driver a complete picture: dock number, receiving hours, check-in procedure, vehicle restrictions, a contact number, written directions for navigating the property, and photos of the entrance and gate. They arrive knowing exactly what to do at every step, from the moment they pull off the highway to the moment the receiver signs their BOL.

The difference in practice looks something like this:

"Dock 12. Receiving Mon–Fri 7am–3pm. Pull to guard gate on south entrance off Perry Blvd — give BOL number at window. 53-foot max, no sleeper cabs in east lot. If dock 12 is occupied, park along the west fence and call ext. 204 on the intercom. Ask for Marcus."

That's a listing that eliminates every question a driver might have. It takes an extra five minutes to write and it pays off on every single delivery from that point forward.

The most commonly missed detail is check-in procedure. More drivers get stuck at a gate or in a wrong entrance than at the dock itself. If your listing covers dock numbers but not how to get through the gate, you've solved half the problem.

Keeping your listing accurate over time

Operations change. Receiving hours shift seasonally. Dock assignments get reorganized. A new guard gate goes in. None of that means your listing becomes a liability — it just means you edit it.

Log back into your account at any time, open your listing, and update whatever has changed. Edits go live immediately. There's no re-approval process.

A practical approach for busy facilities: assign one person on your receiving team as the listing owner. Their job is to check the listing once a quarter — a five-minute task — and update anything that has changed. That's it.

If drivers leave notes on your listing that are outdated or inaccurate, you can flag them for review. In practice, the driver community tends to self-correct over time — experienced drivers often add clarifying notes when they notice something has changed, keeping listings current even between your own updates.

Getting your listing in front of the right people

Publishing is step one. Step two is making sure the drivers and carriers who deliver to your facility know the listing exists.

The most effective approach is to embed your listing URL in your standard carrier communications. Add it to rate confirmations, carrier onboarding packets, and your email signature. If you use a transportation management system or carrier portal with a notes field, paste the URL there.

Send it directly to your ten most frequent carriers and ask them to share it with their dispatch teams. Carriers who run your lanes regularly will bookmark it and use it automatically from that point forward.

For walk-in or first-time drivers who show up without it, a printed sheet near your receiving window with the URL — or even a QR code that links to the listing — means they leave with the information for next time.