Abstract: The efficiency with which loads carried by vehicles can be off-loaded is improved by allowing vehicle personnel or companies shipping goods by vehicle to directly schedule personnel and other resources needed for off-loading automatically without human intervention. During off-loading, information related to the off-loading is captured by dock personnel using a hand held terminal and sent to a database. The hand held terminal permits capture of images related to the load, including images of goods damaged during shipment. Control of access to an automated system is controlled by log-in identification and password. The privileges and format of information provided to a user is dictated by the log-in identification.