The wall chart and the phone
You deliver locally in your own van twice a week: private customers on Tuesday and Friday, restaurants every weekday morning. The plan is a wall chart in the back office. Someone rings each private customer to agree a time, writes it on the chart, and then the driver works out the route in his head.
Half the calls go to voicemail. A customer in the next village is booked on Tuesday when everyone else near her is on Friday. And on the day, two people are out, so two cases come back to the shop.
Why local delivery eats time
The van is flexible, which is its strength and its problem. Without fixed slots or areas, every delivery needs a conversation, and the round is only as efficient as the person planning it that morning. Trade and private deliveries share the same van but are planned separately.
- Customers are not offered a delivery day or slot when they order.
- Times are agreed by phone, one customer at a time.
- Rounds are planned from memory rather than by area.
- The driver has no ordered list or customer notes on the road.
- Customers are not told when the van is on its way.
What an unplanned van costs
Hours of phone calls each week. Miles driven back and forth across your area. Failed deliveries that come back to the shop and go out again. And trade customers who get their wine late because private deliveries overran.
Wine adds its own wrinkles. Cases are heavy, so the driver cannot simply leave them on a doorstep in the rain, and some orders need an adult present to receive them. Christmas multiplies the load several times over in a few weeks, which is exactly when a planning system held in one person's head gives way. And a van that is late for a restaurant's morning delivery holds up a kitchen and a bar that are waiting to set up for lunch.
Local delivery planning we build
- Your delivery area is divided into zones, each with the days the van goes there.
- At checkout, online and in the shop, customers see the delivery days and time windows available for their postcode, with the capacity you set per round.
- Trade deliveries are placed on their standing days automatically.
- The night before, each round is put in a sensible order, taking account of trade drop times, and the driver gets it on a phone with addresses, notes ('side gate', 'leave with the pub next door') and what to deliver.
- Customers get a message on the day with a narrower time, and another when the van is nearly there.
- The driver records each delivery, with a photo or signature where you want one, and any failed deliveries are rebooked into the next suitable round.
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Phone calls to agree a time | Customer picks a slot when ordering |
| Round planned from memory | Round ordered the night before |
| Driver's own list | Phone list with notes |
| Customer out when the van arrives | Told when the van is near |
| Failed delivery back to the shop | Rebooked into the next round |
If a delivery planning service you already use can do most of this, we connect it to your shop rather than build it again.
A van that runs to plan
On a normal Friday, the round is ready before the driver arrives: fourteen private drops in two neighbouring zones and three restaurant drops first thing. Customers already know their window. The driver follows the list, marks each drop, and one customer who is out gets a message offering Tuesday instead. Nobody in the shop spends the morning on the phone.
Signs your van needs a plan
- Delivery times are agreed by phone.
- Rounds are planned on a wall chart or whiteboard.
- Failed deliveries come back to the shop regularly.
- Private and trade deliveries clash.
- Customers are not told when the van is coming.