Last Mile and Customer Delivery Expectations

Customer delivery expectations continue to rise—faster shipping, tighter delivery windows, and real-time visibility—while transportation, labor, and inventory costs remain volatile. Logistics and distribution teams are often asked to improve service without a clear understanding of what customers truly value or what the organization is willing to fund. This session will examine where misalignment commonly occurs between commercial promises and operational capacity, and how those gaps show up in expediting, margin erosion, and service inconsistency.

We will hear from Matt Schaub, Director of Logistics at Sargento, and Ben Andrews, Director Trade Compliance, Logistics, and Transportation at The Vollrath Company, how their teams plan their last mile deliveries to meet customer expectations. Discussions and breakout groups with UWEBC member organizations will explore practical approaches such as:

• defining clear service tiers and what each level actually includes
• aligning order cutoff times and lead times with warehouse and carrier capacity
• reducing costly expedites through better planning and root-cause tracking
• evaluating centralized vs. regional distribution trade-offs
• improving communication between logistics, sales, and customer service before issues escalate

Participants will leave with concrete ideas they can apply right away to clarify service standards, reduce avoidable cost, and set more realistic delivery commitments. Whether your organization is managing B2B distribution, e-commerce growth, or network redesign discussions, this session will offer practical steps to better balance customer expectations with operational realities.