Beverage Distribution: How Much is AM/PM Gap Time Costing Your Business? 

Gap time (also called dwell time) is the period drivers spend at the depot before and after their route. During these windows, drivers are on duty but not driving. 

AM and PM gap time accounts for a small portion of each driver’s day. But if this metric isn’t managed proactively, inefficiencies can add up. As your fleet scales, overtime costs creep up and delivery promises are more difficult to uphold. 

Perhaps you aren’t sure what your drivers’ average gap time is. Or maybe you have a hunch it’s too high, but you don’t know what to do about it. If that sounds familiar, this article is for you. 

Keep reading for a step-by-step approach to identify and eliminate excessive gap time. 

At the depot, drivers are off the road but still on the clock. This time is earmarked for activities that contribute to delivery productivity – for instance, loading and unloading goods, or performing vehicle inspections. 

Yet all too often, this “buffer time” is prolonged due to operational inefficiencies and driver habits. 

Here are some common challenges that can extend a driver’s gap time:

• Delayed vehicle or load readiness: Route start times are unrealistic as warehouse staff are still picking, packing or loading pallets when drivers arrive. 

• Load customization and complexity: Beverage loads are custom-built to each account’s unique SKU mix and order size. This complexity can prolong picking, staging, or loading tasks. 

• Inefficient return logistics: There’s no streamlined process for handling empties, returns or out-of-date products. 

• Yard or loading bay congestion: Limited space or too many vehicles returning at once causes queueing and bottlenecks. 

• Manual or inefficient procedures: Paper-based vehicle inspections, invoicing and proof-of-delivery (POD) procedures hold up drivers at the depot. Verbal dispatching and unclear expectations can add to the confusion.

• Driver habits: Drivers consciously or unconsciously extend their depot time with activities unrelated to work. 

• Lack of accountability: Gap time isn’t tracked, so there’s little incentive to carry out tasks quickly. Drivers aren’t aware that they’re taking longer than necessary to close out.  

Left undetected, prolonged gap time increases labor costs and damages delivery performance.  

When drivers spend longer than planned at the depot, this results in: 

• Avoidable overtime costs and driver fatigue. 
• Delayed route departures and potential missed delivery windows. 
• Bottlenecks in yards and warehouses, contributing to further inefficiency. 

At Descartes, we’ve worked with beverage distributors who discovered an average 25+ minutes of unplanned PM gap time per driver. In a medium-sized business, this could add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. For large distributors, overtime can add up to millions annually.

Most distributors don’t have integrated systems that can capture information about gap time. This makes it difficult to spot issues when they arise. 

When there is technology in place, the focus is normally on travel time and stop performance. Route planning and execution tools are not joined up with the Human Resources Information System (HRIS), so gap time remains invisible to analytics software. 

In this case, distributors have to rely on gut feeling when it comes to depot-based activities.  

Route execution tools can bring visibility to AM/PM gap time, empowering you to identify bottlenecks and coach drivers.  Here’s how to get started: 

As the adage goes, “What gets measured gets managed.” Descartes’ route execution tools integrate with your HRIS to identify areas of cost leakage. 

Here’s how dedicated software sheds light on gap time: 

• Identifying dwell time deviations: By cross-referencing GPS data, mileage and clock times, the system can spot inconsistencies and highlight problematic gap times.  
• Real-time violation alerts: The software alerts driver supervisors when operations deviate from the plan – such as when a driver takes longer than thirty minutes to complete the closeout process.
• Management tasks: The tool can automatically create prioritized tasks for your team, reminding supervisors to check in with drivers following violations.  

With improved visibility, you can tackle the underlying issues that drive up labor costs. 

Once you know the extent of the problem, you can work with drivers to pinpoint what’s slowing things down.  

• Are planned route start times unrealistic?  
• Are there recurring faults with vehicles? 
• Are drivers carrying out unnecessary tasks?
• Are there tasks that could be reassigned to a less costly employee? 
• Are drivers having trouble finding their assigned vehicle? 
• Do drivers need to pick up equipment such as straps from the other side of the building? 
• Is the yard too congested? 

Now that you know where time is being lost, you can start to address the root causes. 

Prolonged gap time is often the result of ingrained driver habits. 

It’s not uncommon for well-meaning drivers to chat with colleagues or walk the depot while still on the clock. In the absence of gap-time data, drivers may be unaware that they’re staying too long. 

With the right feedback and support, you can help drivers to align with company expectations.

Here are a few ways to get started: 

• Benchmark driver gap times and provide constructive feedback or incentives for consistency. 
• Educate drivers on efficient pre- and post-trip routines. 
• Ensure expectations are clear around which tasks need to be completed. 
• Coach drivers who may be routinely slower due to habit, inexperience, or disengagement. 

Like many beverage distributors, Heartland Coca-Cola saw that limited fleet visibility was driving up costs. The company partnered with Descartes to introduce real-time route execution software. 

Gap time reporting means that instead of benchmarking each distribution center (DC) against a random 30-minute gap time, Heartland can track how each DC is improving week over week or year over year.  

Crucially, supervisors can drill down into each team member’s performance. 

“Maybe you’ve got one team member that’s taking an hour every day,” explains Curtis Ackerman, Business Process Lead at Heartland Coca-Cola.  “Is that team member maybe doing some things that they think they’re supposed to do, but they don’t need to? Is there an obstacle in their way that we need to remove? In the past, we didn’t have that information: It was all based on feeling.” 

Unmanaged gap time quietly eats into productivity, profit, and performance. Luckily, the root causes are solvable once you shine a light on them. 

Want help getting started? Contact Descartes to find out how route execution tools let you measure, manage and reduce gap time across your fleet.