The Unit Limiter is an Opendock feature that lets warehouses control inbound volume by capping both the number of appointments and the number of handling units (like pallets or cartons) that can be scheduled. It's built to be flexible — limits can apply at the warehouse, load type, or dock level, and can vary by day or month — helping warehouse teams prevent overbooking, protect capacity, and keep daily throughput predictable.

Why Unit Limiter matters

Without capacity controls, warehouses can easily get overbooked, leading to dock congestion, labor and equipment overload, missed SLAs, and reactive manual intervention by staff. Unit Limiter solves this by proactively enforcing limits on appointments and handling units — so schedules reflect real warehouse capacity before problems occur.

How to set up Unit Limiter

1. Define your Handling Unit (Warehouse Settings)

Before setting any limits, define what a "unit" means for your operation.

• Go to Warehouse Settings.
• Define and label your handling unit (e.g., "Pallet Count"). This label is what appears across the product — on appointment forms, limit configuration, and grid views — so use terminology that matches how your team actually talks about volume.

2. Configure your limits

Once your handling unit is defined, go to "Manage" under the Unit Limiter configuration. This requires admin permissions.

You can combine several types of limits:

• Time-based limits — set different limits by day of the week (e.g., Mondays vs. Fridays) or by month (e.g., peak vs. off-season).
• Warehouse-level limits — a global cap, e.g., a maximum number of appointments per day or a maximum number of pallets per day. These apply unless a more specific rule overrides them.
• Load type–level limits — limits for an individual load type or a group of load types, on appointment count, handling units, or both (e.g., FTL capped at 20 appointments/day; LTL capped at 150 pallets/day; or several load types sharing one combined cap).
• Dock-level limits — limits per dock (e.g., Dock A capped at 10 appointments/day; Dock B capped at 80 pallets/day), useful for reflecting differences in equipment, labor, or physical constraints between docks.

3. 🆕 Entering valid limit values

When entering a Handling Unit limit (at the warehouse, load type, or dock level), keep in mind:

• Negative values are not allowed — this is enforced both in the Opendock UI and via the API. You can't save or submit a negative number for a Handling Unit limit.
• While the value you've entered is invalid (e.g., negative, or otherwise incomplete), the Next button stays disabled, so you can't advance in the setup flow until you've entered a valid value.

4. Check limits on the Appointments Grid

Daily limits and remaining capacity are visible directly on the Appointments Grid, giving schedulers and warehouse teams real-time visibility into current usage, remaining capacity, and when a limit is approaching or has been reached.

What happens when a limit is reached

Once a limit is reached, no additional appointments that would exceed it can be scheduled — this applies to both appointment-count limits and handling-unit limits, depending on how the warehouse configured them.

Carrier scheduling experience

When carriers book through the Scheduling Portal, available time slots are automatically constrained by the warehouse's Unit Limiter configuration. Carriers only see slots that respect every active rule — appointment limits, handling unit limits, and limits set at the warehouse, load type, or dock level, by day or by month. If any applicable limit has already been reached, that capacity simply isn't shown as available.

How Availability Is Calculated

Carrier users only see available time slots that respect all active Unit Limiter rules, including appointment limits and handling unit limits (e.g., pallets, cartons), applied at the warehouse, load type, or dock level, and defined by day of the week or month. If any applicable limit has been reached (appointments or handling units), that capacity is removed from availability.

Coming Soon (Next to Be Delivered)

The following enhancements are not yet available, but are planned:

• Notifications: No email or in-app notifications are sent when limits are reached today; alerting and notifications will be added in a future release.
• Override Functionality: Warehouse users cannot currently override limits; an override capability will be introduced to allow internal scheduling beyond limits when needed, with appropriate permissions.

Good to know

• Limits can exist at multiple levels at once — the most restrictive applicable limit is the one that's enforced.
• Handling unit labels are warehouse-specific and fully configurable.
• If a user reports being unexpectedly blocked from scheduling, check: day/month limits, warehouse vs. load type vs. dock rules, and existing unit totals on current appointments.

FAQ

Q: Can I enter a negative number for a Handling Unit limit?
No. Negative values are blocked both in the UI and via the API — the system won't accept them.

Q: Why is the "Next" button greyed out when I'm setting a limit?
It stays disabled until the value you've entered is valid. A negative number (or an otherwise invalid entry) will keep it disabled until corrected.

Q: Will I get notified when a limit is reached?
Not yet — email and in-app notifications for reached limits are planned for a future release, but aren't available today.

Q: Can a warehouse user override a limit to schedule beyond it?
Not currently. Override functionality — to allow internal scheduling beyond a limit with the right permissions — is planned but not yet available.

Q: Which limit wins if a warehouse-level and a load type–level limit both apply?
The most restrictive one applies. Load type– and dock-level limits are more specific and generally take precedence over a global warehouse-level limit, but whichever limit would be hit first is the one enforced.