Windhoek — We have packed our goods and they are now ready do deliver, or are they? Over the last couple of articles we followed goods into the warehouse and out the other end, and today we explore how to get the documentation ready for delivery.

This obviously depends on the packages destination, and there are 3 main considerations. Is the package for local distribution, for national distribution or for export. Lets explore local distribution first.

Our packages have to be delivered to a local customer. In most cases this means we will deliver the goods using our own delivery van fleet, or we will make use of a local courier company. We pack all packages that have to be delivered along a certain route into a specific cage. This allows for good control and prevents packages for different routes being mixed up. In simple systems we divide the town into different areas, each representing a route. In bigger cities we need complex software to assist in the most optimal routing and scheduling, which we will explore in more detail in the future.

Before we can delivery the packages we need to label them. Typically we will add a sticker to the package indicating the customer, the package number, and the total number of packages the shipment consists of. So we would say on the label that this particular package has to go to customer XYZ, and it is package 3 of 5. This allows us to easily control whether all packages have been loaded and also delivered on the other end. We also print a Trip sheet. This is a document detailing all customers the driver has to visit along the route, ideally in the most economical driving order. It also indicates the number of packages to deliver as well as the total number of packages to load for this trip.

In more advanced systems this process is controlled by wireless barcode scanners, so that the driver scans each packages' label while loading and the system will ensure that all packages for this trip have been loaded, as well as no packages end up on the wrong bakkie.

We also print a delivery note or Invoice for the customer. In Europe it is customary to print a delivery note, here in Southern Africa it is customary to print an Invoice. So the invoice in effect acts as the delivery note as well. Typically the invoice number will appear on the Trip Sheet as well so that the driver can ensure that he takes along all necessary invoices before driving to the customer. The driver should load the bakkie in the reverse order, i.e. load the packages for the first customer he is going to visit last, so that it is easier to offload the bakkie later.

The driver now drives to the first customer and offloads the packages. The customer will check that all packages have been offloaded and then signs on the Trip Sheet as well as on the invoice. The customer will also indicate the time and date of delivery on the Trip Sheet, which is an easy control measure to ensure drivers do not waste time.

Once all packages have been delivered, the driver returns to the warehouse. There an operator will load the actual delivery times into the business management system. This allows management to control the quality of the delivery service. This is typically done in the form of Key Performance Indicators and colorful BI dashboards, so that Managers can see whether delivery performance is in the red or green.

More advanced systems will allow the driver to upload this information electronically from a mobile device. In the case of HansaWorld this can even be done from an iPhone.

We will cover more on the other two package destinations in the next articles.