Try these tips to improve your facility storage, dispatch, and delivery operations:
1-Equip each driver with cell phones or digital cameras and have him take photos of the load as he’s leaving the yard and after he has dropped off the materials. Take extra photos of obstacles at the site, such as standing water at the requested drop point, as well as of the numbers on the sides of special orders. Store those photos with the order and delivery ticket. The pictures will help settle claims about misdeliveries between you and the customer and between the drivers and sales reps. They also will remind drivers that the boss will have visual evidence of their delivery skills.
2-Don’t stint on training. ABC Supply’s “fundamentals of branch operations” classes run one week a month for five months.
3-Color-code info on orders so that it will be easier to spot stuff. This is particularly valuable if you have updated the order.
4-Keep your yard clean, clean, clean. Remove not just pallet binders and trash, but even weeds. Use sweepers to go up and down the aisles.
5-Adjust how you stack and rotate pallets so that you always are selling the oldest goods first.
6-Measure “hot runs” as a percentage of total activity. The fewer the emergency trips, the better.
7-Include in your vehicle mix a smaller truck that doesn’t require a commercial driver’s license. That way, you can use part-time, lower-wage folks like retired military or school bus drivers to do special deliveries in the middle of the day.
8-Pay based on loads hauled and areas served. Motivate drivers by giving a bonus when they perform above an expected level.
9-When hiring dispatchers, look for diplomacy. When hiring yard people, look for communications skills as well as more sophisticated skills at loading a truck.
10-In a smaller operation, create the pick ticket at the same time you order the merchandise.
