Strategic Training For Delivery People

Recently a client asked what could be done to help his delivery people. It sounded like an innocent question.

This chief executive officer explained he had just learned that one of his best drivers had been reported by a customer for speeding in a school zone. It was clear from the reported location that the driver was on a personal errand, not company business. Worse than that, however, was the fact that the driver recently had been voted employee of the month for working repeated extra hours over weekends.

Before making recommendations, it usually is smart to gather all the information you can, including assessing the difference between what is happening and what we might want to happen. Most people do not arrive at work thinking, "Today's my day to screw up." What happens in a job situation usually happens for a reason. If it is not what we want, what is happening usually results from lack of training, or re-training.

The CEO showed me his delivery vehicles and opened the passenger door of one of them. On the floor lay the stale testimony of fast-food lunches from at least a week and scraps of once-credible delivery receipts — some more than two weeks old.

As we walked around the truck, one of the rear tires appeared a little soft, and gas had been spilled down the side of the truck body. There was no maintenance log with a clearly outlined maintenance schedule for drivers to review. I also was told that clothes worn on the job were "what drivers felt the most comfortable wearing." As the scene unfolded, the CEO became flushed and embarrased.

Further inquiry revealed that deliveries frequently were made to locations as far as major ad agency offices downtown and college campuses. There was no definition of what constituted a delivery, however. Was it where the customer wanted the shipment placed, or was it to the front door? Each driver made his or her own determination. It also was revealed that drivers sometimes were used for delivery of proofs, delivery of rush samples and the pick up of proofs.

At this point, I asked if I could sit down with the drivers and talk. The drivers said they seldom received clear instructions for delivery to a new customer, and sometimes were not even told who to ask for. Often they were chewed out by a customer who expected a rush delivery hours before they actually arrived, but seldom had they been informed of what delivery schedule should be followed. Their normal course was to deliver according to either the most efficient mileage and traffic conditions or according to how the van was loaded.

The drivers also explained that customers often made comments to them or asked questions at the time of delivery, especially when deliveries included proofs or rush samples. The drivers' normal course of action was to listen politely, but they did not bother to tell anyone back at the plant what had been said or asked.

Finally, I asked if they ever saw "ready to hand over" artwork in buyers' offices. The answer not only was yes, but some buyers they had come to know on a first-name basis often wanted to give them artwork. However, they had been instructed not to accept anything "they weren't qualified to handle."

Upon reflection, it did not appear that the driver delivery system currently in place had been designed to attend to the customer's needs. What was in place appeared to be for purposes of serving the plant and reducing inside hassles. No one intended it that way, but that is the way the delivery system was working.

At this point, I sat down with the CEO and the sales manager and reviewed the facts. In presenting options that existed for what should be happening, I asked the sales manager to think, from the delivery person's perspective, about what would be the best possible system to build long-term relationships with customers.

Before allowing the sales manager to answer, I noted that in the course of a normal day, the company's drivers easily see twice to three times as many customers as her salespeople. Including the thousands of daily impressions created for motorists by the company logo on the sides and backs of vans, there probably was not a more important segment representing the firm.

The long-term implications of the company's poor delivery program and the need for change began to sink in for the CEO and the sales manager, and they began to pale. We scheduled the first formal training session, which was to include the sales manager and the plant manager.

The sales manager asked if any other clients had their delivery personnel regularly attend sales meetings in order to inform them of customer issues, to teach them technical proficiency when accepting artwork or job specifications, and to make them integral parts of the company's customer-focused strategy. The truth was only one of my clients involves delivery personnel in meetings this way.