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Dynamic Delivery: Coordinated Chaos
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By Counterman
You can get pretty much anything delivered if you want it badly enough. In the parts business, we’ve been doing it for decades, but delivery on demand has crept its way back into grocery and prepared foods, hardware, and many other industries. It’s not a new concept, only more efficient and widespread than it was at the turn of the 20th century, and even the 21st!
Instacart and other grocery services may seem like a modern marvel, but most grocery stores during the first half of the 20th century offered delivery, as did the local pharmacy, dairy, and a host of other businesses. The rise of suburbia (and the supermarket) after WWII threw a curveball into that business model as people became more mobile and spread out from urban centers.
Pizza delivery, especially the Domino’s “30 minutes or less” guarantee, has had a drastic effect on our own delivery operations. For traffic safety reasons, Domino’s no longer guarantees half-hour delivery, but the effectiveness of their advertising campaign still resonates with the public some 30 years later. At the parts counter, as well as with food delivery services like Doordash and GrubHub, there’s still an unspoken expectation that our items will be arriving at fixed intervals after the order is placed.
Fortunately, we don’t deal in perishable merchandise, so a delayed delivery doesn’t ruin the product. That doesn’t stop the phone from ringing off the hook with the dreaded “where’s my stuff?” calls, so we still need to keep up our pace to serve our commercial clientele. As soon as the call ends, or the online order is sent, we are “on the clock,” even if it is only the customer’s internal clock.
Auto parts deliveries generally fall into two categories; “hot shot” and “routed.” Dispatching these orders and staffing a delivery team depends greatly on your market, geography, and each customer’s expectations. If you recall the fable of the tortoise and the hare, the moral of the story was that “slow and steady wins the race.” Routed deliveries are the tortoise, quietly making steady progress in a direct path that ultimately got him to the finish line. The post office, UPS and Amazon all successfully make use of delivery routes. You can generally count on regular deliveries from each of these providers within a specific daily window, and most recipients are content to schedule work around these time slots. Stock orders, parts ordered in advance of a scheduled appointment, and customers at the edge of our service areas are prime candidates for route delivery. For emergency orders, vehicles tying up a lift, and those instances where we have to correct previous cataloguing, picking or delivery mistakes, we must rely on the hot shot delivery.
The hare in our fable is a “hot shot” in many ways, sprinting here and there at a frenetic pace, expending considerable energy and even showing off a little for the crowd. Hot shot deliveries showcase our store’s commitment to serving our customer’s needs, but it can be physically, emotionally and financially draining. No wonder the hare decided to catch a quick nap! It’s easy to get caught up in the moment when it comes to hot shot delivery. If a “top 20” customer asks (or demands) us to drop everything and run, the first instinct for many is to dispatch the part with the first available delivery driver. This can quickly spiral into a shortage of available drivers (or even counter staff) as they scatter to the four winds, each with a single item or order. The problem is only compounded when multiple drivers are dispatched to the same general area, or, in some cases, the same customer! We need to coordinate the chaos to give our customers the best service possible.
For those stores with a dedicated outside salesperson, their daily or weekly sales routes are an established roadmap that can be used as a template for routed delivery. While a salesperson might spend all day maintaining relationships and making sales along a particular route, delivery personnel need only a fraction of that time to cover the same mileage and drop off the requested parts and supplies. Scheduled delivery twice or even three times a day is a real possibility in many markets, with a minimum of vehicles and drivers on the road at any given time. We can also maximize the profitability of route delivery by calling customers along the intended route ahead of time to identify any “last minute” needs before the driver even starts their engine.
Driver scheduling and dispatch requires a balance of “speedy” and “steady” to coordinate the chaos inherent in a successful store operation. Everyone admires the speed and agility of the running rabbit, but sometimes we also need a herd of turtles to get the job done. Knowing how to use both types of delivery effectively maximizes productivity and profits!
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By NAPA
A resilient effort by Christian Eckes and the
link hidden, please login to view team salvaged a top-10 finish in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (NCTS) opener at Daytona International Speedway on Friday night. The driver of the No. 19 NAPA Auto Care Chevrolet Silverado RST finished 10th despite being involved in three multi-truck accidents in the second half of the event. His 10th-place result earned him 39 points and places him third in the NCTS championship standings.
Eckes was buried deep in the field after qualifying 25th, but he instantly darted toward the front once the green flag flew. Eckes’ aggression was immediately evident as he made three-wide moves on the opening lap. He narrowly avoided a multi-truck accident on lap six and joined the top-10 on lap 13. A one-lap dash to close Stage 1 saw Eckes grab three points in eighth position on lap 20.
Crew chief Charles Denike kept Eckes on track during the caution to inherit track position and found themselves in the mix for the race lead when Stage 2 went green at lap 27. Eckes was in the thick of the battle for the race lead and pushed his new MHR teammate Tyler Ankrum to the Stage 2 win. Eckes pocketed another nine points by running second at the end of the segment on lap 40.
Under the second-stage caution, Eckes pitted for four tires and fuel and restarted 12th on lap 45. A caution on lap 57 allowed him, and several other competitors, to make their final stop for fuel. Eckes restarted 16th on lap 62 and rocketed to the front with some aggressive drafting. He briefly took the lead on lap 72 but was involved in an accident on lap 79 while running second. Despite losing a lap, the NAPA Auto Care team made ample repairs and allowed Eckes to regain his lap on lap 86. With five laps to go, he suffered minor damage in an incident which set up an overtime restart. After restarting 24th with two laps remaining, Eckes drove halfway back through the field but was swept into a track-blocking accident on the final lap and suffered significant damage.
Eckes was able to refire his Chevrolet Silverado RST and drove back around to the checkered flag to finish 10th and start the season just four points out of the championship lead.
“Tonight was a wild night, for sure,” Eckes said. “We were able to drive our NAPA Auto Care Chevrolet up to the front a couple times and were going to be one of the trucks to beat. I was able to work well with our teammates for a while tonight until we got turned off Turn 4 there with 20-to-go or so. I’m proud of the guys on our NAPA team to get it fixed and got our lap back. We never gave up tonight and we saved a ton of points because of it.”
Start / Finish: 25 / 10
Points Standing / Total: 3rd / 39 pts. (-4)
Next Race: Saturday, Feb. 24, Atlanta Motor Speedway
How to Watch or Listen: 2:00 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN or SiriusXM
NAPA:
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By RockAuto
Get a 5% instant manufacturer rebate with purchase of select Walker Products parts.View on RockAuto.com
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By OReilly Auto Parts
Supplies Needed for This Job: 1. Safety Glasses:
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By TieRod
So it seems that Amazon has switched most of their prime member orders to the USPS, probably to save costs. The issue is that the US Post Office does not make deliveries if you are on a private road, unless you have a mailman going outside the policy. I even spoke to the post master of the local office and he's getting complaints from residents who are not getting their packages and have to go pick up at the post office! The mailman is even dropping off a slip that says "Sorry we missed you" or "Delivery attempted" when in fact the package never leaves the post office and they just use that form. It's a joke and my taxes at work, can;t get any more packages from USPS and that includes the majority of them from Amazon.
With Amazon's main carrot being delivery and Prime within two days, that's going away for me and for others on private roads unless they switch back to UPS. There is no point if I have to go to the post office to pick it up, no convenience there. Amazon should have negotiated better with the USPS.
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