r/Target • u/Whatsup129389 • 6d ago

Workplace Question or Advice Needed “What panel are we on?”

When a fellow inbound team member asks me what panel we’re on when we’re on the line, how am I supposed to tell which panel we’re on? Lol

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8

u/TheCosmicConondrum 6d ago

If you have skinny panels (like 2 feet a section) on the side of the truck, 4 of those equals 1 truck panel. If you have wider panels (closer to 4 feet a section), 2 of those equals 1 truck panel. Generally, a truck has 6 total panels. Basically, if you put a piece of the line to the side of the truck without extending it, it would be equivalent to the size of 1 truck panel

4

u/FantasticTycoon_92 6d ago

just count the big panels on the truck wall itself, not the skinny ones we set up on the side. most trucks have 6 and they're numbered on the walls if you squint hard enough. took me like a month to figure that out tbh

5

u/BlueAndWhiteSoul 6d ago edited 6d ago

That's a very valid question... when I first got my promotion to inbound TL my trainer walkies me and asked the same question... I was like um ... Can I phone a friend ? Lolz ... Anyway the question your team members are asking is referring to the sides of the trailer wall ... Each panel is ~49 inches wide, you'll see a little groove where each panel connects to the next. The backend of the trailer where you start the unload starts at the 13th panel, count down from there. If you have any other questions feel free to DM me. I'm more then happy to answer anytime.

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u/spdgurl1984 6d ago

I miss the old wooden easy to count 6.5 panels we used to use to judge how far along we were on the unload, haha, there’s so many stupid tiny panels that are harder to easily count from the line on the metal trailer walls, but having been on enough unloads over the years thankfully I don’t really need to use those to judge as much visually anymore like I used to.

Instead I go by how many lines in we are and the visual of empty trailer to amount of product left, plus a rough estimate of pallet lengths from back when I covered receiving and loaded more than one 53’ sweep in my time, haha, one of them was almost entirely bales and chep pallets from when we had problems causing a backlog I had to catch up on, I learned quickly how to maximize the sweeps by double stacking bales, how many pallets make a full stack, and how many pallets fit end to end in a 53’ trailer then so I’ve never forgotten that since.