Our B&Q and Screwfix DC penalties story has attracted plenty of interest already from operators, The Hub surmises, in the same boat, with Twitter hosting a mix of opinions.
While B&Q has been tight-lipped, DHL and Wincanton which operate a number of its DCs have already told Motortransport.co.uk that they are “not aware” of the commercial arrangements between the two retailers and their suppliers, and did not impose any penalties for early or late deliveries at the sites themselves.
Screwfix, just as the original Motor Transport print article went to press, issued a second longer statement, which for the sake of balance we thought we'd publish here.
You can decide whether it addresses the central issues or not - namely, is it fair to hit suppliers whose delivery partners turn up either early or late by 30 minutes or more beyond a set delivery time with up to a £1,000 fine as punishment - yourself.
Screwfix Statement:
We receive well over 10,000 supplier deliveries into our distribution centres on a weekly basis. The deliveries are essential to ensure maximum product availability for our customers. Like most retailers we need a strict timed booking system to receive each delivery.
We work with all of our suppliers to accommodate their delivery requirements and agree booking in slots that allow a level of flexibility whilst optimising input and output from our distribution centres. This works extremely well and over 99.5% of our suppliers deliveries to us are either on time or accommodated for within our schedule.
We work with our suppliers on optimising delivery performance and have conditions in place with each supplier, the terms of which are confidential.