Deatons Building and Home Center has offered a delivery service since 1975, with which customers may choose to have the building materials they purchase delivered directly to their home. In recent years, it has been noted that White's Lumber has picked up the same delivery service, while offering it for more hours. While Deatons delivery service is only available between 10:00 am – 5:00 pm on weekdays, White's Lumber offers their service from 8:00 am – 6:00 pm on weekdays, as well as on the weekend by appointment. As White's is the only local competitor of Deatons Building and Home Center, it can be noted that customers may be choosing White's as their provider simply because of their more thorough availability of their delivery service. Given this problem, there are three ways which Deatons can choose to react.

	Option 1: Deatons can do nothing to compete with the superior availability of White's Delivery Service. In doing so, they would accept the loss of customers to White's, while saving the money it would cost to have a certified driver on hand for those extra hours. While it cannot be calculated how much money is lost through the hours that the service is not available, it is known that the average profit brought in from a delivery is $154.59, when considering delivery fees and subtracting the wages of the employee or employees who make the delivery. It would cost nearly $30.00 per day in wages to have a certified driver on hand during that extra time, in the hopes that a delivery would be required. Because driving is not the primary task for those who are certified, however, they could certainly be put to use to justify this extra spending.

	Option 2: Deatons could employ a delivery driver on an on-call basis. This would permit longer availability of a driver without the risk of employing a driver when unnecessary. To hire an on-call driver would require the addition of a new employee to the payroll. While this would surely simplify and smooth out the delivery system, the addition of a new employee would cost thousands extra in wages and expenses.

	Option 3: Deatons could certify more employees to operate the company truck. The vehicle used is a Dodge Pick-Up, and therefore does not require any special license or training. It would be recommended, however, that Deatons provide full training in safety, regarding both driving and securing the product. Because 8 of the 10 employees in the yard staff have drivers licenses, it is feasible that any of the employees on staff are potential delivery drivers. As yard personnel are required on staff at all times, this would increase the availability of the delivery service to the full store hours. The only stipulation is that a second yard employee must remain on staff during the first and last hour, costing the store two extra hours of pay per day. To certify more staff into the delivery service would increase its flexibility, and also its ease of operation.

As Financial Manager, I feel that option 3 would be the most financially sound. Customers seek not only good prices, but also great customer service. Their ease in doing business can very well shape whether or not they shop with us in the future, and we want to maximize that in every way we can. By training more employees to do deliveries, the staff will become more flexible, rather than forcing a limited number of employees to do a required task.

If you have any questions, comments or concerns, do not hesitate to see me in my office during my regular hours. We hope the problem of competition will be solved as quickly and smoothly as possible.