When a “Quick Favor” Really Isn’t Quick

Something happened, and now a generator is needed on the jobsite in less than two hours.

And when their dedicated driver is already out on a delivery, someone will be asked for a favor, which usually sounds like, “Can you swing by and pick this up real quick?”

Often it’s the Project Manager, the Foreman or the Equipment Coordinator who’s asked this favor. Sometimes the Branch Manager will just go ahead and make the run themselves. Ultimately, whoever appears to have a little free time will be asked to handle the run for the team.

But a “real quick” favor is really pulling someone away from their actual job, and each favor ends up costing 2 to 5 hours in lost productivity. Between drive time, wait time and the time it takes them to get back into the headspace for whatever they were doing before being asked, suddenly, a favor starts to feel a lot heavier than a quick run should.

So what are those “quick favors” really costing your team every time someone is asked to make a run?

Hint – The costs people usually track like fuel, mileage, maintenance and depreciation are not the real expensive part.

2 to 5 hours of somebody’s day is wasted. When you ask your Project Manager or Sales Rep to make that run, they’re not handling the things they should be. They’ll be sitting in traffic or waiting at a rental yard for paperwork, trying to remember what they were in the middle of before they got pulled away.

Who’s Actually Doing These Favors?

Look at your last few deliveries. Chances are, it wasn’t the same person twice.

On a jobsite, it’s usually whoever’s between tasks, like a Site Sup, who should be coordinating the crews.

At a rental yard, often it’ll be the Branch Manager, who should be running the branch — not making an equipment rental pickup that could’ve gone to someone whose whole job is driving.

At a building material supplier’s warehouse, it’ll be whoever was closest to the phone when the call comes in, like the Sales Rep — pulled off the floor to handle an urgent building material delivery. And suddenly, they’re not available to answer or make any other calls, because they’re out on the road.

All are different businesses, but really, it’s the same math. Whoever’s on payroll for something else will be doing this instead. And finding out that usually “real quick” really isn’t.

When you start looking at the true cost of this lost productivity every time a delivery is needed, it becomes more of a P&L nightmare, rather than a quick, cheap way to solve the problem.

So When Does It Make Sense to Handle It Yourself?

There are plenty of deliveries worth doing in-house. We’re not saying that your team shouldn’t ever handle your own deliveries. We’re just saying, when team members who should be doing their own work, start to take on delivery duties, those deliveries become a major source of lost productivity. And those costs add up.

But lost productivity is avoidable, because FERO can help keep your team working on the actual jobs they were hired to do, while still getting those deliveries handled quickly.

Before Someone Grabs the Keys

Before you ask another team member for a quick favor, just ask yourself, “Is this really the best use of their time?” If the answer is yes, then send them!

But if it’s not, remember three words for a faster, better way of handling deliveries.

Just FERO It.