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Where to find it: Dock Scheduling → Add Appointment → Block slot Blocking a slot reserves one specific dock for one time range — a placeholder with no order, load, or customer attached. Use it for a maintenance window, a trailer that’s sitting in the door, or any time you need to hold a door open for something that isn’t a booked appointment.
The Block slot switch only appears when the facility you selected is one your organization operates.

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Create a Block

1

Open Add Appointment

Start a new appointment as you normally would, and select the facility you operate.
2

Turn on Block slot

The order field is replaced by an alert explaining that you’re reserving a dock and time without an order. The slot stays reserved until you unblock it or convert it into a real appointment.
3

Fill in the required details

A block needs all of the following:
  • Facility
  • Pickup or dropoff
  • Live or drop
  • A specific dock, active and able to handle that stop type
  • Start and end time
The dock is required here even though it’s optional on a normal booking, because the block reserves that physical door.
4

Save

The block appears on the calendar immediately and the slot stops being bookable.
Saving is rejected if the dock is already occupied during that window, or if the block would push the facility past its concurrent appointment capacity. Blocks count against that cap like any other appointment.
Blocks don’t send booking confirmation emails, and they skip the reschedule bypasses that apply to owner-created appointments.

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Unblock a Slot

On the calendar, a block appears as a clickable Dock 3 — Blocked event with the subtitle Reserved.
1

Click the blocked event

The Blocked Slot dialog opens, showing the facility, dock, appointment type, and date and time.
2

Click Unblock Slot

The placeholder is deleted and the dock and time become bookable again right away. There’s no undo — create a new block if you unblocked by mistake.

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Turn a Block Into a Real Appointment

If the block was a placeholder for a load you’ve now confirmed, you can update it in place into a real appointment rather than unblocking and rebooking.
You can’t apply Blocked through the normal appointment status flow — it’s rejected, with a prompt to use Block slot on the Add Appointment screen instead.

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What Bookers See

Owners see blocks as clickable Dock N — Blocked events. Carriers and other bookers don’t see the block at all — they only see reduced availability for that dock and time, with no reason given. If a carrier needs to know why a door is held, tell them directly.

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Who Can Do This

Only the facility’s owning organization can block and unblock slots. Owlery admins can place a block on an owner’s behalf.
Show Same Order Appointment Action under Shipper Settings → Quoting → Dock Scheduling is unrelated to blocking, even though it sits under a similar heading.

Holiday & Closure Dates

Change hours for a whole date across the facility instead of holding one door.

Dock Appointment Settings

Operating hours, appointment length, and the capacity cap that blocks are checked against.