A vehicle or equipment purchase may relieve a capacity constraint, but measure the bottleneck first. Use the same record period and comparison conditions for both options.
Identify the constrained resource
Is it vehicles, working hours, cooling capacity or load space? Use dispatch schedules, vehicle hours and load measurements to answer.
Establish fleet utilisation
For the last 12 months, record trips, fill, idle time, breakdowns and service days by vehicle. Show peak demand and simultaneous vehicle needs separately.
Verify trips that could combine. Flag trips separated by product regimes. Trial the closed-equipment option on the actual route and monitor net load, trip time and product temperature. Record whether trips really combine.
Compare total cost. For vehicles, include purchase or finance, maintenance, insurance, operation and idle time; for equipment, include purchase, preparation, labour, returns and loss. Get supplier assumptions in writing.
Update the investment decision
After measurement, identify the remaining constraint and unmet demand in peak weeks. Compare staged or combined investment using costs and performance records at the same service level.
