Load for the route, not for the van
A van that serves different customers each weekday needs a different load each weekday. Sunday’s route may be grocery shops in one district, Monday’s cafés in another. A single standard load carries too much of one line and too little of another on most days.
Build the load from the route: which customers are on tomorrow’s journey plan, and what those same customers bought on the same weekday over the last few weeks. That gives you a base load, before any buffer.
- Take tomorrow’s route day for the van
- Pull sales for the same weekday over the last four weeks
- Average each item’s sales across those days
- Add the buffer for that item
- Subtract what is still on the van
TipLeave out a disrupted day, such as a holiday or a breakdown, so one odd day does not skew the average.
Size the buffer from how much sales vary
A buffer covers the days a route sells more than usual. A flat percentage on every item is simple, but it overloads steady lines and underloads lumpy ones. A better rule looks at how far each item’s sales have swung: cover the gap between the average and the best recent day.
Then take off what is still on the van. Stock that stayed on board overnight is part of tomorrow’s load, not extra to it, and loading on top of it is how vans fill up with slow movers.
TipGive a new item a small fixed buffer until it has four weeks of sales to judge it by.
Respect shelf life and space
Some items should never ride for long. Dairy, bread and chilled lines lose shelf life in a hot van, and a carton that comes back twice is one a shop will refuse. Load short-dated lines for today only, and send the oldest stock out first, so what stays on board is the freshest.
Space is the other limit. When the plan adds up to more than the van holds, cut the slowest lines first, not evenly across the range. Running out of a fast mover loses a sale at almost every stop.
- Short-dated lines: load for one day, unload the rest
- Fast movers: never cut to make room
- Slow movers: carry a few cartons, or move them to order and deliver
- Bulky items: check the van’s space before adding a buffer
- Seasonal lines: add them to the plan, then take them off
TipMark the lines that may not stay on the van overnight, so the evening unload never depends on someone remembering.
Move the load by transfer, never by slip
Whatever you decide to load, record it as a stock transfer from the warehouse to the van, checked by the rep before the van leaves. The warehouse goes down, the van goes up, and the plan can be compared with what was actually loaded.
Keep what goes on to the range the rep may sell. An item outside the rep’s range is stock nobody can sell from that van; it either comes back in the evening or gets sold off the books.
TipLoad in the same order every morning, item by item, so a missing carton is noticed in the yard rather than at the first shop.
Keep apart the two kinds of goods that come back
Two kinds of goods come back in the evening. Unsold stock is the van’s own goods that nobody bought; it goes back by an unload transfer and can be sold again. Customer returns are goods a shop handed back, expired, damaged or unwanted; they need a return document with each item’s condition.
Keep the two apart on the van and in the paperwork. A damaged carton unloaded as unsold stock goes back on a shelf, and the next customer finds it.
- Unsold stock: unload by transfer, back to sellable stock
- Customer returns: record each item with its condition
- Expired goods: keep apart until written off or sent back
- Damaged goods: inspect before deciding what happens next
TipGive returns their own crate on the van, so they never share a stack with stock for sale.
Read the evening unload as a signal
What comes back each night tells you how good the load was. Measure sell-through per item: what was sold as a share of what was loaded. Very high sell-through, day after day, means the van probably ran out and lost sales. Very low sell-through means you are driving stock around for nothing.
Review the lines at both ends once a week, and change that item’s buffer or base load, not the whole plan.
TipAsk the rep which items customers wanted and the van did not have; that is the one figure no system can see.
Checklist: Before tomorrow’s load
- Check tomorrow’s route day for each van
- Average each item’s sales on that weekday
- Add a buffer from the item’s best recent day
- Subtract what is still on the van
- Load short-dated lines for one day only
- Cut slow lines first when space runs out
- Record the load as a transfer the rep checks
- Keep customer returns apart from unsold stock
- Review sell-through once a week