How you can save on G a, delivery costs

Questions on delivery 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.

DilTi*'J::H'3"r#',,1Xllill1:

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 re-loading in the yard. Neither function should take, on an average, more than l5 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 l5 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 pre-loading. This practice is not difficult, but it requires discipline and a policy set by management. An official position (like 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 bearing 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 posted 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). r Hand or machine placement of shingles & wallboard by quote. o 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. r Back orders will be substituted where possible or cancelled.

You'll be amazed 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 a2" x 10" x20" with a 2 " x 10" 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 company will provide in the way of delivery services.

"Management Sumeys the Block Hole of Delivery," divided into threeseparale dollor volume manuals, under S2 million, $2-5 million and over $5 million, is available for 545 from Builders Express Inc., 11550 Plono Rd., Dollas, Tx. 75243. Attention: Wally Lynch. Please specify volume desired.