Where this sits
This illustrative example is a distributor that moves fast-moving goods from a depot near Apapa into the rest of Lagos: Surulere, Ikeja, Ajah, and the island when the bridge allows it. Dispatchers still build the day on WhatsApp and a whiteboard.
The problem
Static routes assume the road will behave, and it will not. A truck leaves at 5am and sits at Mile 2, a second run is added by phone, kilometres burn, windows slip, and customers in Lekki and Agege are promised the same hour. There is no picture of what is actually on the road, so when a driver calls in, the plan is already wrong.
What we would agree in writing
The statement of work covers one process: the daily dispatch, from orders in to vehicles out and proof of delivery back. In comes the orders, depot stock, the vehicle list, and the windows sales already sold. Out goes a day's board the dispatcher can change by hand, with exceptions flagged and a close-of-day note. Buying trucks, driver payroll, and customer pricing stay out of scope unless the paper says otherwise.
How the work runs
In week 1 we ride one morning with the dispatcher and map the real constraints: gate queues, estate rules, and which roads die after 3pm. In weeks 2-3 we build a board that starts with their current zones, not a foreign city model. The dispatcher can lock a drop and pull a vehicle. Week 4 is a parallel run on one cluster only, often the Ikeja loop, and the whiteboard still wins if they say so. We widen under the agreement. The dispatcher keeps the stop.
Standards this kind of job has to meet
Proof of delivery is customer data, so NDPA still applies, and driver phones are not a public broadcast. The client owns the order book. We do not sell it. If a live path is wrong, a named person pauses it. We do not leave a truck following a dead plan because a model is sure. Local knowledge stays in the scope: Apapa gate times, island access, and the estate lists they already have.
What the client brings
They bring a named dispatcher, one cluster to trial, honest windows rather than the ones sales printed, and a vehicle count that is real on a Monday.
What we deliver
We deliver a written scope, a dispatch board they can run, a stop, a close-of-day view, and an operations note. Invoices match the legal name on Privacy.
How we measure
We track on-time windows for the trial cluster, kilometres for the same order set, and how often the dispatcher overrode the board. These are measures, not a promised saving.