How you can save on delivery costs G

Queslions on deliverl costs? Send them to this magazine at 4500 Campus Dr., Suite 480, NewPort Beach, Ca. 92660. Wally LYnch will answer them in future issues. This is your chance to take advantage of his expertise in cutting your delivery costs.

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al duties as fork lift operators, etc.

The reasons are many, but the most important from an economic standpoint is cost. When a driver doesn't drive, the truck is idle and not productive. The more a fully loaded truck is driven, the more effectively the company's vehicles are profitably completing delivered sales.

The major down time for the driver should be unloading at the job site and reJoading in the yard. Neither function should take, on an average, more than 15 minutes to execute. (Hand placement of shingles, wallboard, etc. at the job site are an exception to this.) In general, a driver won't have much trouble off loading in 15 minutes per stop.

In order to insure productivity from drivers and trucks, the dispatcher must be supported by a company policy which generates timely order picking, staging and preJoading. This practice is not difficult, but it requires discipline and a policy set by management. An official position (ike orders received in the morning will be delivered in the afternoon and orders received in the afternoon will be delivered the morning of the next working day) will allow yard people to pull, stage and preload in an orderly fashion.

More important, it should never take more than 15 minutes to load a truck once it is spotted along side a pre-staged load. Our company has run numerous evaluations on how many stops one man can pull, preJoad and stage per eight hour shift. While it varies slightly from study to study, it is fairly consistent that on average one man can process one stop every 15 minutes.

Telling people within the company how delivery is to be handled is not difficult and it does have a definite haring on their effectiveness in serving the customer. It is just as important to tell your customers what they may expect from your delivery service. In short, an external delivery policy posed for all to see and use as a guide to when and what they can expect is most important. A simple sign listing policies (similar to those below) will do the job. o Delivery is free within a certain radius Monday - Friday (except holidays). o Hand or machine placement of shingles & wallboard by quote. r Orders received by l0 a.m. are delivered in the afternoon. After l0 a.m. orders are delivered in morning of the next working day or later if sPecified. o Back orden will be substituted where possible or cancelled.

You'll be amazd if You adoPt the two postures expounded in this article. First, you'll see how effective your dispatcher will become once you tell him, other employees and your customers what is expected. The second revelation will be how much cheaper it is to substitute for a 2 " x lO' x?fr" with a 2" x l0' x 22' instead of back ordering and delivering another time, and how appreciative your customer will be to have spelled out for him what it is the comp.rny will provide in the way of delivery servic.es.

"Management Sumeys the Black Hole oJ Delivery," divided inb rhreeseparate dollor volume manuals, under 52 million, $2-5 million and over 55 million, is ovailable for 545 from Builders Express Inc., lE50 Plano Rd., Dallas, Tx. 75243. Attention: Wolly Lynch. Pleose specify volume desired.

Home Quarters Opens

Home Quarters Warehouse will open two new warehouse type home center operations in Virginia this month, according to Pete Ricci, marketing manager.

The Virginia Beach unit will utilize an ex-Woolco building on Virginia Beach Blvd. Abbass Montazami will be manager of the 85,000 sq. ft. facility.

The smaller, 70,000 sq. ft. unit in Hampton also is using an established building. It islocated on MercuryBlvd. Dck Boucher is manager.

Corporate headquarters for the new W.R. Grace chain occupy the second floor of the Virginia Beach location.

Canfor Expands in 3 States

Canfor U.S.A. Corp., Boise, Id., has opened lumber transit-reload centersin Denver, Co., Rocky Mount, Va., and San.Antonio, Tx.

The Colorado reload center is able to service 40 states with truckload lumber. Inventories include dimensional hem,/fir, spruce boards, 4x4 green Douglas fir, and fir4arch. The center services retailers, manufactured housing producers and distribution centers, according to Joe Reininger, Canfor lumber trader in Boise.

Spruce boards, S.P.F. dimension, eastern and western Canadian spruce are available for distribution by truck to manufactured housing producers and lumber customers within a 250 mile radius of the Rocky Mount center. Bruce Bergquist, lumber trader in Boise, is in charge.

The San Antonio center receives lumber shipped on the M-K-T Railroad and distributes it by truck throughout San Antonio and south toward the Gulf of Mexico. Serving retail accounts, it handles inventories of S.P.F. 2x4, 2x6 and studs. Roger Taylor, sales manager for Canfor U.S.A. Corp.'s Texas division is responsible for the buying.

Lumber lmport Legislation

Legislation has been introduced in the House of Representatives to limit imports of Canadian softwood lumber, siding, shakes and shingles, and particleboard for a five year period. Representatives James Weaver (DOr.); Larry Craig (RJd.) and Beryl Anthony (D-Ar.) were among the 22 members sponsoring the bill.