How much stock to load on a van each morning: a load sheet that works

Most vans are loaded the same way every morning: the salesman calls out “the usual”, the godown man adds a few cases “just in case”, and the van leaves. By evening, the fast products ran out at the tenth shop and the slow ones come back untouched, a little more dented than they left.

Both mistakes cost money. A product that runs out is a sale the shop gives to someone else. A product that rides all day and comes back is cash parked on the road, handled twice, and the first thing to get crushed or go past its date. A load sheet fixes both, and it takes ten minutes once it is set up.

Why the beat, not the salesman, decides the load

If your beats are fixed by weekday, Monday’s shops buy roughly the same things every Monday. That is the most reliable number you have. Load for the beat the van is running today, using what that beat bought the last few times, not what the van took yesterday on a different route. If your beats still move around, fix that first: see beat planning for a small distributor.

The formula, product by product

Load = average sold on the last 4 visits to this beat + orders booked for today + scheme free goods + extra (fast movers only)

1. The beat average

Take the quantity of each product sold on the last four visits to this beat and divide by four. Four visits smooths out one unusual day without going back so far that the season has changed. Use pieces or cases, whichever you sell in, but be consistent.

2. Orders already booked

Some shops order a day ahead by phone, on WhatsApp, or through the salesman on the last visit. Add those quantities on top of the average, by shop, so they cannot be sold to the first shop that asks. If your orders arrive in several places, see how to stop losing phone and WhatsApp orders.

3. Scheme free goods

If a buy-ten-get-one scheme is running, the free pieces have to be on the van too. Leave them off and the salesman either disappoints the shop or gives free goods out of the paid stock, which then shows up as a shortage at night. See FMCG schemes and free goods.

4. A small extra, for fast movers only

The extra is for the handful of products that sold out on this beat in the last few weeks. Everything else gets no extra. This one rule usually removes most of what comes back every evening.

A worked example

Thursday’s beat. One biscuit, sold in cartons. These are example numbers, to show the sum.

• Sold on the last four Thursdays: 18, 22, 20 and 24 cartons. Average: 21.
• Orders booked for today: two shops, 3 cartons each. Add 6.
• Scheme: one carton free with every ten. About 2 free cartons on 27. Add 2.
• It sold out on two of the last four Thursdays, so it is a fast mover. Extra: 3.
• Load: 21 + 6 + 2 + 3 = 32 cartons.

A slow product on the same beat, which sold 4, 2, 3 and 3, gets 3 and no extra. If a shop asks for more, it can be booked for the next visit.

The load sheet, column by column

One row per product. It works on paper, in Excel or in any software:

1. Product
2. Average sold on the last 4 visits to this beat
3. Orders booked for today
4. Scheme free goods
5. Extra (fast movers only)
6. Loaded (the total, counted)
7. Came back in the evening

The salesman and the godown man count the load together and both sign the sheet. Counting together in the morning is what makes the evening count fair; see how to close a van’s day.

The evening column improves next week’s load

• Comes back three weeks running: lower that product’s load on this beat.
• Sold out before the last shops: give it the small extra, or raise the extra.
• One shop always wants more of something: book it as an order for that shop instead of loading extra for everyone.

Five loading habits that save money

• Oldest stock out first. Load the earliest expiry dates onto the van, so the newest stock waits in the godown.
• First shops nearest the door. Load in reverse order of the route, so the salesman is not unpacking the van at every stop.
• Heavy at the bottom, crushable on top. Most transit damage is cartons crushed by heavier ones.
• Mind the weight. Your vehicle’s registration certificate shows its gross and unladen weight. The difference is the most it should carry. Festival loads go over it more often than people think.
• Heat-sensitive goods last and shaded. Chocolates, ghee and similar products suffer on a long, hot day in a closed van.

For how much to keep in the godown behind the vans, see how much stock a distributor should keep.

How Mulberry Sales helps

The office loads each van against the salesman assigned to it for the day, and the salesman sees the stock on the phone straight away. Stock leaves the godown count the moment the van is loaded and drops as bills are made, and Vehicles shows what each van loaded, sold and has left during the day. Orders booked for a shop and a date are loaded as bundles and delivered on the route; whatever is not delivered comes back and is named on the day-end sheet (Starter plan and up). Unsold stock is unloaded at night back into the godown. Reports break sales down by product for any dates, which is where the beat average comes from (Growth plan and up). The quantity to load is still your decision; the app does not suggest it. See how to load a van or the van sales software.

Questions people ask