DSD is fundamentally different from warehouse delivery. In a warehouse model, you ship pallets to a retailer’s DC and your involvement ends. In DSD, your driver walks into the store, checks the shelf, rotates product, places the delivery, processes stale returns, gets a signature, and moves on.

The economics favour perishable and high-turn products. Fresh bread, pastries, chips, beverages — products that move quickly and suffer from poor shelf rotation. The manufacturer maintains control over freshness and brand presence in exchange for bearing the delivery cost.

Managing DSD at scale requires route planning, load building, at-stop confirmation, return processing, invoicing from confirmed deliveries, and real-time visibility. The gap between planned and actual — customer takes 180 instead of 200, driver leaves extra rolls — needs to flow back into invoicing, inventory, and production planning.