Delivery run
delivery round · van run · shuttle · route
A delivery run is the regular route through which a distributor serves its workshop customers, several times a day depending on the area. Its frequency and departure times define the real service rhythm: it is the run, not the stock, that sets the promise you can keep.
Director of publication : Florian Précigout
This is the logistical particularity of the trade: the automotive aftermarket does not run on lead times in days but on intra-day cycles. Two to four daily passes on a dense area is what lets a workshop operate without stock — and therefore what makes the distributor hard to replace.
Cut-off time matters as much as availability. An order placed five minutes after cut-off moves to another day, and the workshop has no way of guessing it. Making that time visible at the moment of ordering prevents more disputes than any goodwill gesture afterwards.
It also explains the trade's sensitivity to backorders: missing a run means pushing an already scheduled job back by half a day.
The trap
Thinking in average lead times. A delivery run has no average, it has timetables: the only useful information for a workshop is "before or after the next departure".
Frequently asked
How many runs a day does a distributor operate?
Entirely dependent on area density and service policy. In a dense urban area several daily passes are common; in rural areas the rhythm tightens.
Why is cut-off time so sensitive?
Because it moves delivery by half a day with nothing changing on the stock side. It is the most frequent gap between what the counter knows and what the workshop assumes.