'Can you still get it out tonight?'
Your cut-off for same-day collections is in the customer terms, but customers do not read terms. At half two, three and even four o'clock the phone rings with someone who needs two pallets collected for tonight's hub trunk. They have a big order, their buyer is waiting, and they are one of your better accounts.
The person answering does not know if it is possible. They put the caller on hold, ring the traffic office, who rings a driver, who is stuck in a yard waiting to load. Twenty minutes later the customer gets a 'probably', and the driver gets a new drop that makes him late back for the trunk.
The answer depends on information nobody can see
Saying yes or no to a late collection is a capacity question. The facts exist, but they are spread across drivers' heads, a planning sheet and the trunk timetable.
- Where each collection vehicle is now, and how far it is from the new address.
- How many pallet spaces and how much weight each vehicle has left.
- Which collections on each run are still to be done.
- What time the vehicle needs to be back for the trunk to leave on time.
Without that view, each late request becomes a chain of phone calls, and the answer depends on who picks up.
What late requests are costing
When you say yes without knowing, the trunk leaves late or a driver runs out of hours. When you say no to be safe, a customer takes the job to another depot or courier. Either way the office loses time on the calls.
It also creates quiet unfairness. The customers who shout get squeezed in, and the ones who booked properly sometimes get collected late as a result.
The collection board we build
- Collection runs are loaded from your bookings each morning, with pallet spaces and weights per stop.
- Vehicle positions come from your existing telematics where it has an API, or from the driver app as each stop is completed.
- The board shows each vehicle's remaining space, remaining stops and the latest it can be back for the trunk.
- When a late request is keyed in, the board suggests which vehicle could take it and what that does to its return time.
- The office confirms with the driver through the app, and the new stop appears on the driver's list with the address and notes.
- Declined requests are recorded with the reason, so you can see how often capacity turns work away.
| Question | Before | With the board |
|---|---|---|
| Is there space? | Ring the driver | Shown per vehicle |
| Who is closest? | Guess from the run | Suggested from position |
| Will the trunk still leave on time? | Hope | Return time estimated |
| Did we turn work away? | Unknown | Recorded with reason |
Your planner still makes the call. The board just gives them the facts in the time it takes the customer to finish the sentence.
What the afternoon looks like
Late requests get a confident answer while the customer is still on the line, and drivers get one clear message instead of three calls. The trunk leaves on time more often, because every yes has been checked against the return time.
Over a few months the declined list shows whether you need another collection vehicle in the afternoon, or whether the cut-off should move. That is a decision worth making with evidence.
Is this your afternoon?
- Late collection requests start a round of phone calls.
- The office cannot see where collection vehicles are.
- The trunk has left late because a late collection ran over.
- You do not know how much work you turn away.
- Customers who booked on time are sometimes collected late.