Logistics is defined as the commercial activity of transporting goods to customers. In principle it is a simple matter of collecting goods from point A and delivering them to point B. As in my own business the practicalities are much less simple.

The interaction of logistics with my business is twofold and frequent. It happens every time something is delivered and every time something is taken away. This is at least ten times per day.

The nature of the deliveries and collections varies according to the quantity of goods and the party responsible for ordering the collection. For example, when we order goods the supplier will either deliver using their own transport or engage someone else to do so. The same applies to the goods delivered at the request of our customers. Similarly our despatches may be carried by a vehicle ordered by our clients or by ourselves.

We make daily despatches via a contractor who is part of a “hub and spoke” pallet delivery company that provides a very flexible and reliable service. In some cases we are asked by our customer to book the delivery in at the delivery location because many companies operate very strict booking systems for their warehouses.

The strict booking systems are clearly a benefit to a warehouse when faced with multiple deliveries and collections of various load sizes and the need to optimise the resources for loading, offloading and putting things away. Properly run, the booking systems can save vehicle drivers the frustration of long queues waiting to load or offload but they are not designed to help drivers and are not loved by them.

We try to operate a booking system for our deliveries and despatches to optimise our resources but also very importantly to ensure that we know what to expect, who it belongs to and in the case of despatches, where they are to be delivered and by whom. This is a matter of security for our customers’ goods and health and safety for our employees. We need to know of the hazards of material deliveries in advance. We try but we are not very successful.

The importance seems obvious but the mystery of logistics is that so many vehicles turn up with goods that are not identified on the manifest or turn up to collect an unspecified quantity of unspecified goods belonging to an unknown owner. Whereas the best logistics companies equip their vehicles with computers or documentation that provide full details of the load to be collected or delivered, many vehicles still turn up with a driver who has no idea what he is carrying or no idea what he is about to load and only a mobile phone to show for it.

There is clearly a connection with the economics of the transport business that results in companies sub-contracting loads to lesser companies but the opportunity for lost and miss-delivered goods seems to be huge. So why do so many transport companies fail to provide the necessary information to their drivers before arrival? It’s a mystery.