Transport and delivery delays mean huge financial losses to food businesses. This includes enterprises engaged in food harvesting, transport and distribution, retail and food service outlets such as restaurants, bakeries and cafes.
How important is timely delivery in food businesses
Financial losses result from lost sales, customers and opportunities. For example, an entire business might shut down because of a delay. Their major partners or customers might back out of a deal because the trust was lost in the first place. As being late in meetings is seen as unprofessional, it’s also the same way in the delays of deliveries and distribution.
We can see how businesses run by thinking of matching supply with demand (while making profits in the middle). After all, many businesses were started because there’s a demand for a certain product or service in a particular market. For instance, a food business focusing on takeaway and delivery service was probably started because its target customers are busy professionals. It can also be the result of special circumstances such as a pandemic where physical contact and presence should be minimised.
However, matching supply with demand is challenging because of time and uncertainty. If the supply doesn’t arrive on time, we cannot meet the demand and hence we lose customers and money. This not only applies to business to consumer transactions, but also among business to business interactions. Most of the supplies of one business certainly comes from other enterprises such as when food businesses have to get meat, dairy, seafood and other refrigerated supplies from other markets and supply chains.
Aside from time and delays, we should also consider uncertainty. Demand constantly changes and it’s hard or even impossible to keep up with the changing preferences of customers. As a result, we try to forecast demand so that we can stock up on supplies. In addition, there’s also uncertainty about supply including availability and prices. For instance, the prices of fruits, vegetables, meat and seafood might get a lot higher next week because of drought or other natural disasters.
It even becomes more challenging if there’s uncertainty about time. If the time of delivery and arrival is unpredictable, it’s almost impossible to plan and smoothly run the business. This can even result in damaged goods and seriously disrupt business operations. For instance, if the dairy and seafood products were exposed to less than ideal temperatures for hours while on the road, it can compromise the entire delivery. The suppliers, the transport company and the receiver of the goods all suffer in terms of lost income and damaged reputation.
To prevent all that, here at COOLTRANS we implement real-time tracking of deliveries and prepare backup vehicles in case something fails. We also regularly maintain the fleet so that there will be no problems while on the road. And when it comes to tight temperature control, we do the necessary measures to keep the reliability and precision. Contact us today for your refrigerated delivery requirements.
