Deliveries on the road

By five o'clock the afternoon van has four drops left and the light is going. Shops ring the office asking where their order is, and the office needs to know where the van has got to without phoning the driver every twenty minutes. This tour shows the late run from both ends: the driver's phone and the office screen.

Step by step

1. Open the van's route in the office. The four stops are numbered in the order to drive them, as the route planner set them. The map on the tour screen is a drawing for illustration, not a live map, but the order is the real thing: it is the same order the warehouse used to load the van.

2. See which stop is done and which is next. The first stop has been marked delivered by the office, and the next one is highlighted. Anyone looking at the route can tell at a glance how far the run has got.

3. Open the stop on the driver's phone. On his phone, the driver sees the current stop: the shop's name, where the delivery has got to, and the address with a button that opens it in the phone's maps. He does not need to copy addresses into a sat-nav.

4. Check what is on the order. The stop shows the order number, how many items and the total. That is enough to make sure the right cases come off the van, and to answer the shopkeeper who asks "is that everything?"

5. Call the shop with one tap. If the shutter is down or the back door is locked, the driver can call the shop from the stop screen. No hunting for a number in a notebook.

6. Understand who marks the drop done. The driver's app shows the day; it does not change it. The office marks each drop delivered or not delivered. That is deliberate. One person in the office owns the delivery record, and a tap on a phone in a hurry in the rain does not decide whether a shop is invoiced for goods it never got.

7. Watch the stop land in the office. When the driver rings in and the office marks the stop delivered, the route shows it done the next time the office list is refreshed. The next stop is highlighted, and the shop that rang asking "where is my order?" can be told exactly.

Who sees what on the run

A worked example: when a drop fails

At the third stop the shop is shut early. The driver calls from the stop screen; nobody answers. He rings the office, which marks the drop not delivered. The route moves on to the fourth stop, and the failed order is still there to rebook.

Now the office has a decision. The order was worth, say, £186.65 including VAT, and it is still on the van. If it went on the customer's account when it was invoiced, the customer's statement will show it as owed for goods they have not received. Sort that out tomorrow morning, before the gentle payment reminder goes out on its schedule: either deliver it on the next run or, if the customer no longer wants it, raise a credit note so the balance is right.

Before the van leaves the yard

A smooth afternoon run is mostly decided before the engine starts. Check three things. First, that every order on the route has been picked in full, or that any short lines have been agreed with the shop. Second, that the van was loaded in reverse stop order, so the first drop is by the doors. Third, that the driver's phone shows the same stops, in the same order, as the office screen. If any of those is off, fix it in the yard. Fixing it at a shop door with the customer watching takes three times as long.

Tips for running deliveries

• Load in reverse stop order. The last drop goes in first. The route the driver follows should match the way the van was packed.
• Mark drops as they happen. A route marked up at the end of the day is no help to the shop ringing at half five.
• Use the call button before leaving a failed drop. Many "shop closed" drops become deliveries when someone answers the back door.
• Keep shop phone numbers current. The call button is only as useful as the number on the customer record.

Common mistakes

Letting the driver keep his own list. Two lists means two versions of the truth. The phone and the office should show the same stops.

Marking a drop delivered before it is confirmed. The office should hear from the driver first. Delivered is a statement about goods in a shop, not about where the van is.

Changing the stop order on the road without telling the office. If the driver takes a different order, the office's "next stop" is wrong and customers get the wrong answer.

Forgetting the failed drops. An order marked not delivered still has to go somewhere tomorrow.

Why the office keeps control of delivered

It is tempting to let drivers tick off their own deliveries. But "delivered" is what tells the business a customer has their goods and can be asked to pay for them. Keeping that in the office means one person checks it, the same way one person checks the cash at the end of the day. The driver's phone gives him everything he needs to do the job, and none of the things that could go wrong in a rush.

What to do next

After the last drop, the van comes back and the day is closed: sales on account, cash, card and payments taken, counted and locked. For the thinking behind planning delivery routes and setting a minimum drop that covers its cost, read van sales and route orders. If failed drops keep turning into disputed balances, customer credit for wholesalers covers clear terms for what is owed and when.