Playbook
How dealerships can reduce delivery delays
Delivery delays are usually treated as individual incidents. They aren't — they're structural. The fix is a playbook, not a pep talk.
Step 1 — Instrument readiness
Every readiness signal that matters at handoff — recon, finance, back office, prep, plates, customer confirmation — needs a tracked state and a named owner. If a signal lives in someone's head or a side chat, it's not instrumented.
Step 2 — Schedule against real capacity
Booking deliveries against an empty calendar produces Saturdays that can't be kept. Booking against real recon, finance, and prep capacity produces appointments the store actually hits.
Step 3 — Surface risk early
At-risk deliveries need to surface days before the appointment, not at 3:55 PM. The board should rank deliveries by risk, name the reason, and identify the owner.
Step 4 — Gate the override
Override is sometimes necessary — but it should require manager permission and an audit reason. When override becomes routine, the workflow needs to change, not the discipline.
Step 5 — Report the pattern
Individual slips are noise. Pattern slips — same finance manager, same recon stage, same Saturday afternoon slot — are signal. The reporting should surface patterns, not just cases.
FAQ
How fast does this take to implement?
Most stores are live on the playbook in 1–2 weeks. The harder change is cultural — moving from a whiteboard to a system — and that's a 30–60 day arc.
Do we need to change our DMS?
No. The playbook runs alongside your existing DMS and CRM.
Keep reading
Run delivery on a live board, not a whiteboard.
See DealerIQ on your store's numbers.