Won’t a minimum drop push independents to a broadline competitor?

The test checks how many accounts sit just below the minimum and what they order elsewhere. Most raise their order to meet it, which is what makes the stop worth serving.

We don’t track time at stop. Can we still do this?

Yes. Route miles and stop counts get you most of the way. Driver logs or routing exports improve the estimate.

Split cases and drop size in foodservice distribution: how to find it in your records

The short answer

Independent restaurants usually carry the best gross margin in foodservice, but they also order the most split cases, the smallest drops, and the most off-day deliveries. Measure profit per drop after picking, delivery, and credits, not gross margin per case. Accounts below a drop size or with frequent split cases can lose money even at high margin, and a minimum drop or split-case charge often fixes it without losing the account.

Where it hides in foodservice distribution

Split cases

Breaking a case means extra handling, repackaging, and often shrink. Many distributors charge too little for it, or nothing.

Small and off-day drops

A stop that adds a few cases to a truck that was already full, or that sends a truck out on a day the route does not normally run.

Credits and pick-ups

Mis-picks, short ships, and product returned at the door. Each one costs a second handling and often a second trip.

Fuel and stop time

Downtown stops with long walk-ins and no parking cost far more driver time than their cases suggest.

The records to pull

Twelve to twenty-four months of each. Nothing needs to be installed or connected; a spreadsheet export is enough.

Invoice lines

Account, delivery date, route, cases, split cases, revenue, and cost.

Route and stop data

Route, stop sequence, miles, and time at stop, from routing software or driver logs.

Credits

Credit memos by account with reason codes.

The ten-day test

Days 1–2

Have sales write down which accounts it considers most and least profitable. Hold out the last quarter.

Days 3–5

Price a cost per drop, per case, per split case, and per credit from your own warehouse and fleet costs.

Days 6–8

Compute profit per drop for every account and compare the ranking with sales’ list.

Days 9–10

Confirm in the holdout and size a minimum drop, a split-case charge, and a change to delivery days for the smallest accounts.

Specimen · illustrative figures

A regional foodservice distributor with 3,100 accounts found that drops under 15 cases were 38 percent of stops and lost money on average after delivery and credits. Split cases were 9 percent of cases handled and were charged at about half of what they cost. A minimum drop with a fee below it, and a revised split-case charge, was worth an estimated $700K to $1.1M a year.

Stop condition, written first

Stop if profit per drop is positive for every account segment after cost to serve, in both the search period and the holdout.

What gets built if it holds

Profit per drop reported to every sales rep monthly, with a minimum drop and split-case charge applied at order entry. It runs inside your operation, belongs to you, and is measured weekly against the dollar range the test produced.

Sources

17Kaplan, R. S. & Narayanan, V. G. (2001). Measuring and managing customer profitability. Journal of Cost Management, 15(5), 5–15.

Specimen figures are illustrative and do not describe a Modven client. Reviewed October 10, 2026.

Split cases and drop size in foodservice distribution

Where it hides in foodservice distribution

The records to pull

The ten-day test

What gets built if it holds

Asked often, answered plainly.

Where do you suspect the value is hiding? Tell us your hunch. Ten days later it comes back with numbers on it.