Estimation question

You have a grocery delivery service that delivers food within 24 hours. How many trucks would you need to operate it?

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What this question tests

Operational estimation combining order volume, truck capacity, and delivery time windows.

How to approach it

  1. Estimate daily order volume for the service, for example a mid size city serving 10,000 orders a day.
  2. Estimate deliveries per truck per day, based on stops per route and hours of operation, for example 40 deliveries across an eight hour shift.
  3. Divide daily orders by deliveries per truck to estimate the base truck count needed, 10,000 divided by 40 equals 250 trucks.
  4. Adjust for the 24 hour delivery window, which allows spreading deliveries across a longer period than a single shift, potentially reducing peak truck need.
  5. Add a buffer for peak demand periods and truck downtime, then state the final estimate as a range.

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