The receiving wave: aisles blocked at six in the morning, and why it is a safety problem before it is an operations problem
Every morning the receiving area overflows into the aisles. Everyone knows it. What is missing is the evidence, the duration and the recurrence to turn it into an action.
It is six in the morning. Three lorries are unloading at once, the receiving area is full, and the next pallets go wherever there is room: in the circulation aisle, then in the fire aisle, then in front of the emergency exit at the back. By eight, everything is put away. When the HSE manager walks past, the aisle is spotless.
This is not an anomaly. It is the normal operation of a warehouse whose receiving area was sized for the average, not for the peak. And that is why it is hard to fix: everyone involved sees it as an organisational problem, temporary, already solved by the time it is discussed.
“What I don’t have is the evidence”
An HSE manager at a logistics platform put it to us this way: “I know the aisle is congested every morning. What I don’t have is the evidence, the duration and the recurrence to turn it into an action.”1
That sentence sums up the problem. To get a larger receiving area, a shifted delivery slot or an extra pallet truck, you have to convince an operations manager that the cost of the congestion exceeds the cost of the fix. And for that, a feeling is not enough. You need a number.
Why it is a safety problem first
An aisle congested at six is not just a delay in put-away. While it is congested:
- the fire aisle no longer has its full width, which the inspectorate and the insurer check;2
- the emergency exit at the back is hidden, at precisely the time when the site is busiest;
- forklifts and pedestrians cross in a reduced space, with pallets on the floor blocking the view;
- trucks go around the obstacle along routes not meant for them.
During the 2025 regional campaign, circulation aisles and fire aisles were among the points checked, and 80% of the 279 sites visited had at least one non-conformity.2 The inspector does not come at six. The risk does.
What the replay of a day shows
In Camly, two tasks are enough to cover the receiving wave: “fire aisle 3 is clear over its full width” and “emergency exit B is free”. Each is checked at regular intervals on the camera that sees the zone. When the state is no longer compliant, an episode opens; when it is compliant again, it closes.
The replay of the day shows these episodes on a timeline. In the platform’s demonstration, the episode from 10:20 to 10:33, fourteen minutes, appears with its images, among the eleven flagged checks of the day.1 Over a month, the same timeline, aggregated, gives the table the HSE manager was missing:
| Question | What the history answers |
|---|---|
| Is the aisle congested every morning? | 19 of 22 working days, between 05:50 and 07:40 |
| For how long? | 48 minutes on average, 1 h 35 at most, on Mondays |
| Is it linked to deliveries? | The longest episodes coincide with days of three lorries or more |
| Did the action work? | Average duration down to 12 minutes after the Monday slot was moved |
The figures above are an example of what the history produces, not a published measurement. What matters is the form: a recurrence by hour of the day, a duration, and a before-and-after comparison.
From complaint to action
With recurrence by hour, the conversation changes nature. It is no longer about reminding the night team of the rules. It is about sizing the receiving area for the observed peak, moving a delivery slot, or adding a pallet truck between six and eight. These are operations decisions, and they are made on measured durations.
To go one step further, Camly can optionally receive information from your warehouse management or dock appointment system: a lorry expected at dock 3 at 10:00, for instance.1 The agent then knows what is planned, and the history can tell congestion linked to a scheduled delivery from congestion that is not. It is a complement, not a prerequisite.
What Camly does not do
Camly does not manage docks and does not replace your warehouse management system. It does not track forklift drivers or receiving staff: findings are about an aisle, an exit and a state, and people are blurred on the stored images. It does not act in real time. It measures what lasts, and makes it visible to those who decide.
Where to start
Pick the aisle or exit that overflows most often in the morning, and the camera that sees it. Thirty days of pilot are enough to get the timeline, the recurrence and the duration. After that, the request for resources is no longer an impression: it is a table.
Sources
- Camly AI, “Warehouses” brochure, pilot edition, October 2026: testimony of an HSE manager at a logistics platform, replay of the day (episode from 10:20 to 10:33), optional integrations with warehouse management and dock appointment systems.
- Prefecture of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, “Prévention des risques industriels : l’État mène une vaste opération coup de poing sur le risque d’incendie dans les entrepôts”, updated 16 September 2025. prefectures-regions.gouv.fr