hello,
say i have 8 deliveries and 2 drivers. i dont know where each street is. but i need to, so that i can arrange them to be delivered the most efficient way, so that drivers back soon to take say another 8. please advise. my thoughts are to start coding (A1-D4) map and just imagine based on map code where delivery is, but i think its not very efficient as deliveries on streets coded A1 and A2 might not be even going same way (we need to acct how streets are positioned), my other idea is to have a map on a wall and person taking orders instead of putting delivery slip on slip rack, instead would find it on this map and pin that sleep to this map, so that delivery coordinator or whomever sends deliverys out knows what goes where and what can be bundled up or what needs to be sent out right away to get it out of the way while other 3 r cooking or whatever situation might be. Please advise if you have any experience/thoughts/solutions in this quest. thanx
Are you using a Point of Sale system? If you are most have zoning capabilities. You would have to set up the system to have it work. With zoning you are generally assured the deliveries that go the same direction would be marked with the same zone.
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We would NEVER send out 8 deliveries on one run with a driver. There is Zero chance of even half the orders arriving hot and fresh! If you are that far buried you need to add drivers! If you can’t add drivers, you need to slow down the kitchen so that orders go out the door pretty soon after they are complete.
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Ideally we like to send two orders together. We will send three if they are really close together.
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Driver takes the oldest order that is ready to go and another one that goes well with it. It is great if the second oldest is in the same direction but it if is not we will have the next driver take it.
There are infinite situations that will arise when routing deliveries. You may find that “hard system” of zoning deliveries will not always work and you have to make exceptions all the time. We have a “soft system” that sets goals and guidelines but allows for flexibility.
First off, if you have 8 deliveries and 2 drivers, you probably need more drivers.
We attempt to have every driver take 2 deliveries per run going in the same direction. Drop off the older one first. That 2 deliveries per run may go up or down depending on how busy we are. If we have 10 deliveries in the works and 5 drivers then the 2 per run is perfect. If we get busy and have 15 deliveries then we have to start routing drivers out with 3 per run. If it slows then we may have each driver go our with 1. The manager in charge will always have the ability to change the routing depending on the situation. Some times we have to send a single out even though they should be taking a triple. Sometimes a quad goes out even though it there should only be doubles. Its all over the place in pizza delivery.
We find that the 2 per run is the sweet spot though. With 1 per run the drivers get cranky because they are not getting enough deliveries. I get cranky too because the labor is too high. 3 per run the customers get cranky because the delivery times are too long. Also we find when running 3 at a time the chances for a mistake ( forgotten item ect) goes up 10 fold.
guys, but when u arranging deliveries whether its 2 for a run or 1 or 3 or 4 …no matter, you need to know where they are. so how do u know? imagine that i dont have an employee who is that familiar with the area… do u see any issues with pinning delivery slips to the printed out map thats on a wall?
ps when im saying 8 deliveries i mean not deliveries ready to be delivered, but some ready some just came in, plus thats when its busy. but that beyong the point im trying to bring up. the point is even if u have 3 deliveries and 2 driver - u still need to imagine where each delivery is in relation to the store so u bundle 2 properly
We’ve used P.O.S. for years…have the street index broken down into 4 quads…deliveries come up & are grouped if/as needed…
Since you have no POS, you would need to print up a large map with a street index next to it. Then you look up the street name on the index to get the grid coordinates on your large map (they would need to have number ranges otherwise it would be rather pointless) to find where each delivery is going. Then you would only have to look up what is out, or what is coming out to see if anything goes together.
I highly suggest you get a POS with routing. It will pay for itself very shortly.
First point. HARSH REALITY
If you are the owner you should have a pretty thorough understanding of where streets are and in what area.
Second: As a few of the more experienced guys have said you have the capabilities of having zones set in you POS (if you have one) If you don’t have a POS get one ASAP. Point of Success is a affordable option and will allow you to zone areas. Our POS has all the streets we deliver to in it by suburb/zone. This also blocks out staff entering deliveries to outside of our delivery area as the system will only allow input of streets in the system.
Third: Once you zone the areas you can then do “delivery matching”. We have a printed laminated sheet on the wall near the end of the ovens where the pizzas go in where staff can see what suburb goes with what.
Fourth: You, your manager or the person taking pizzas out of the oven should be calling the shots on how many deliveries can go in the oven at anyone time.
Fifth: You or you manager / team leader should be checking the delivery tickets and arranging them in delivery groups if make bench staff are not capable of doing it. We have 3 delivery zones - close, not so close and extreme of delivery areas going north, south and east (one suburb directly across the road from the shop is only about 1/2 mile east to the coast). We group deliveries by the suburbs 2 at a time if busy, single if quite or deliveries to different zones and on the rarest of times 3 but only if two streets are very close to each other.
Sixth: Get a strong plan together for delivery times. Quote times that are achievable and based on where deliveries are going to. If you have 2 drivers and 5 deliveries all over the place then you can’t quote 25 mins for each delivery.
If you don’t have a POS get one ASAP and if you don’t know your areas for delivery back to front then get out there and do some deliveries.
Dave
Speedline Solutions has an integrated mapping function that your deliveries show on a screen (we use a 32" tv at our oven area) in real time. It’ll pinpoint where each one is going, then after x amount of minutes it’ll turn yellow to warn you it’s starting to get old and red after xx amount of minutes to tell you to get it out the door ASAP. Not only that, but Speedline is hooked into bing maps so your drivers can see if any of the streets are congested, just like in Bing and google maps for your usual directions.
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We use live maps also, works great. The old timers don’t use it but the new guys love it. Every once in a while it will map an address wrong. Like 20,30 or a 100 miles away. The best one was an online order where the custome typed a number inside their street name. Like map8le street. Bing maps picked it up as an address in Russia and the screen displayed the entire globe until we corrected it.
As for not having anyone that knows the area in the store. Your number 1 priority Friday morning should be learning your area. You don’t need to memorize the streets. You just need to know the block numbering system of your area. East west north south or whatever it is. Send me your stores address and ill show you how it works.
In time you will find that most of your deliveries go to the same places again and again and your drivers will know them by heart.
We have a large map of the area on the wall. It is about 60" wide and 50" tall and includes every street along with a listing of all streets with grid references. Experienced drivers almost never use it, new guys use it all the time.
Your idea of pinning tickets to the map is a waste of time. Your drivers will figure it out quickly enough and not need that.
You should do a half dozen driver shifts yourself. You will figure it all out from there.
Drivers will also have smart phones with mapping. That will take care of most issues when they are out on delivery.
Get a POS system.
Get to know your area. Overtime of looking up addresses on the map you will know where a good chunk of the streets are. Most people have smart phones so why arent your drivers looking up where the addresses are and routing them in the same direction. If they have been working for you long enough they should ideally know where the streets are. I keep my phone handy in my pocket if I dont know where an address is i look it up. We are in a beach town so the streets here are like a maze so a grid and block system does not work for us because the layout of my city is not design this way so i cant tell where an address is based on the number. At my old locaton our delivery area was a perfect grid i could tell you where an address was simply from the number. If this is the case for your area learn the ranges of the numbers and which way they go.
During our crazy times , I’m the delivery dispatcher.
I have the most knowledge of the delivery area and I have a general rule of thumb: it needs to be in the customers hands in 10 minutes or less after it has left the store .
My drivers use the delivery app that integrates with our pos system and It updates every 1 minute to tell me where they are , how long until they get to the customers door , and how long until they return.
I can route the next run before they get back.
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What is this delivery app they use? How does it track them? What pos are you using?
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The delivery app is gps enabled and it pings the store where their location is. The app has an sms option if driver wants to shoot a text to customer letting them know it’s on the way . It has an option for the driver to connect to google maps to help the driver get to destination. Also a cool feature is customers can track their order online. Gives them accurate time frame when driver will be at the door
My pos system is : pizza director by foodtec solutions.
If you goto their website , there are some videos on it.
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Ah Foodtec, we looked at them before Speedline. Sounds like a very handy feature
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Yes, it’s one of the high end systems. I’ve used it since 2006, and will never get rid of it .
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Rob, you forgot to mention the best part besides tracking drivers is that they are able to finalize the credit card orders with tips on the app (including signature) which frees you from manually entering credit card tips for each transaction st the end of their shift