What a yard visit adds that the manifests leave out

Giorgi arrives before the first long-haul. He does not interview. He counts. How many leave in the first hour. Where they queue when the advertised lane is blocked by a trailer that ‘will only be a minute’. Whether the bonded cage is a cage or a polite sign. The kettle room is a source: people talk there without meaning to give evidence.

Waybills will tell you a truck went to Poti. They will not tell you it slept in the yard two nights because the ship was late and nobody opened a second book for dwell. That sleep is a catchment fact and a corridor fact. It is also a staffing fact, though we do not sell staffing plans. We put the sleep on the plate as a mark. Managers who hate the mark are usually the ones who needed it.

We still need the paper. A gate morning without the week’s sheets is just a picturesque industrial photograph. The drawing room already has enough of those. Bring the copies, then let us stand at the gate.