Importance of Being on Time in Supply Chain

The number one rule for every employee here at Scotlynn, is to always be on time, being late is not an option. Rule number two is do not ever microwave seafood, but that is besides the point. The reason being for rule number one is, if we expect the trucks to always be on time and to be in the habit of punctuality, we should ask for the same expectations of ourselves. There is an old saying which is, "time is money, and money is time." In the Logistics industry, I have found this saying to be very true.

If a truck is late for the pick up, there is going to be a late fee, that someone is going to have to pay for, then one of two things are going to happen. One, the truck is then going to have to sit and wait all day for the other trucks that are on time to get loaded or two, it will just put everyone else behind schedule and make the other trucks wait longer than originally anticipated to get loaded or unloaded. This will also make the employees at the wear house get behind schedule and have to stay longer to get the rest of the trucks loaded and unloaded. This also leads to the crew loading or unloading your truck to most likely, being less motivated to load or unload the truck causing their delay. This in turn, also leads us to get behind in our day, because now on top of everything else we have to deal with on a day to day basis, we need to contact the receiver in order to reschedule a new delivery time, and then we also need to contact the customer to let them know this disappointing news. If you have to give one of your customers that news multiple times, chances are you might lose a customer which means less loads for you to cover, which in turn, means less money in your pocket. This is the biggest reason why we go above and beyond to contact the driver multiple times a day to ensure the load is always running smoothly. In a matter of seconds a load can go from running perfectly fine, to gone horribly wrong. No matter the time of day, day of week, or holiday you have find a solution to the problem or you end up with an unhappy customer because their load is late or gone all together.

One situation that really stresses the importance of an on time delivery in this industry is when there is a perishable commodity in the trailer and flat tire or wreck occurs. That product is only safe if the trailer and reefer are both in tact and for as long as the reefer has fuel. If fixes to the truck are unable to happen before then the entire commodity is damaged and someone is going to have to pay for it. Which can be up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. This is the very definition of time being money.

Finally, if a truck is late for their delivery to a wear house, it will be late to the shelf in the store, which for perishable commodities means less shelf life and leads to bigger losses under the damages bracket. What this means for all commodities, perishable or not, is being late to the shelf. For commodities that are sensitive to being new and certain release dates especially, this means customers going to different retailers that already have the product on hand, which leads to smaller margins or even losses for having to sell that product at a discounted rate due to drop in popularity. When that retailer is a client of yours, they are not going to be very happy, to say the least.