Printable checklist
Supplier evaluation checklist.
Print this page from your browser and take it into a meeting with any shared delivery provider. Tick each point when you have the answer, and write the answer on the lines.
This is practical advice for supplier branches evaluating any shared delivery arrangement.
Supplier evaluation checklist for shared delivery
Fill in by hand:
Delivery provider
Date of the meeting
Customer control
- Who sets the material prices for each order.
- Who accepts or declines an order, and who invoices the customer.
- Who handles a return, a credit or a complaint.
- One order followed from the counter to the invoice: at each step, who sees it, who speaks to the customer and whose name the customer sees.
Notes
Information boundaries
- What another supplier on the same truck can see of your order.
- What the driver and the customer on site can see.
- How access is restricted, recorded and removed when staff leave.
- What a customer-facing tracking link reveals, and whether it exposes unrelated pickups.
- Which screens are working today, and which are plans or illustrations.
Notes
Readiness and exceptions
- What happens when an order is not ready at the planned pickup time.
- What happens when a load cannot travel with the others, or the site cannot receive it.
- What happens when an item is found short or damaged on arrival.
- Who notices the problem, who decides, who tells your customer and how the change is recorded.
- How a delay caused by another party is kept off your branch’s record.
Notes
Flexible windows
- Whether your customer has agreed to a wider window before it is offered.
- The actual quote for the delivery, compared like with like: the same load, destination, handling and window.
Notes
Judging a trial
- Written definitions of an on-time arrival, a complete delivery and an exception, kept fixed while the trial runs.
- The cause of each late or failed delivery recorded: the delivery provider, a supplier or the site.
- The number of deliveries behind every percentage.
- What your own deliveries cost today and how often they run late, recorded before the trial as the baseline.
Notes
Ask for in writing
- The data-retention policy.
- The incident-response policy.
- A named operational contact.
- A clear approval path, and a written record of the decision.
Notes