Order minimums and cut-offs that actually hold
Every distributor has delivery rules. Most enforce them by having an awkward conversation afterwards, which is the expensive way to do it.
Ask a distributor what their order minimum is and you will get a number. Ask how often it is enforced and the answer gets vaguer, because in most businesses the minimum is a guideline that somebody applies case by case, usually after the order has already been placed.
The same is true of the cut-off. The stated time is 4pm. The real time is when the run is planned, which is later, and every venue that has ever got an order in at 4:30 knows it.
Why unenforced rules cost more than no rules
A rule that is sometimes applied is worse than one that is never applied, because it creates work every single time. Somebody has to decide. That decision needs context about the account, so it escalates. Meanwhile the customer has learned that the rule is negotiable, so they will test it again.
The uneconomic drop is the visible cost. The larger one is the decision load: a handful of judgement calls a day, each interrupting somebody who was doing something else.
Enforce before, not after
The fix is not to be stricter. It is to move the enforcement from after the order to during it, where it costs nobody anything.
- Show the next delivery date for that account, on their screen, before they start.
- Show the cut-off as a time remaining, not as a policy buried in terms.
- Show the minimum as a gap to close, not as a rejection at checkout: forty dollars to reach your minimum is an upsell, sorry, your order is too small is a phone call.
- Let a late order place itself against the next delivery rather than being refused, and say which one it will land on.
The last one matters most. A customer who orders after the cut-off has not done something wrong. They just need to know when it now arrives, which is information, not a rejection.
Where the rules actually live
Delivery days and minimums are per account, not per business. The venue on the far run has different days to the one around the corner, and the account you fought to win may have a minimum you agreed to waive. If your system can only hold one set of rules for everybody, your team will keep making exceptions by hand, which is where you started.
Worth checking in any demo: ask to see two accounts with different delivery days and different minimums, and watch what each of them sees at checkout.