What to do when your production line is down — urgent parts delivery

Line-down calls cost thousands per hour. Here is the checklist we run when a manufacturer calls with a broken production line and needs a part on site now.

By CourierFly Operations Team, Control room & operations · Published 24 September 2026 · Updated 19 October 2026 · 3 min read

"The line is down" is the phrase that keeps operations managers awake at night. A typical automotive assembly line loses £15,000–£40,000 an hour when it stops. A pharmaceutical filling line can lose more. When the phone call comes in and the missing part is at a supplier three counties away, the courier you pick and the decisions you make in the next fifteen minutes decide whether the shift is saved.

The first fifteen minutes

Before you call anyone, gather five pieces of information. Without them, the courier cannot give you an accurate ETA and dispatch will stall:

• Exact collection postcode — and a contact name and phone on site.
• Exact delivery postcode — and the name of the goods-in team.
• Part dimensions and weight — decides van size.
• Readiness time — when will the part be at the collection point, not when the call went in.
• Any special handling — fragile, sharp, high-value, temperature-sensitive.

Same-day vs dedicated on a line-down call

On a line-down call, always book dedicated. The extra cost is trivial compared to the assembly cost you are trying to protect, and the direct routing removes the risk of the van diverting to another job and adding an hour to your ETA. If the part is small enough for a courier motorbike inside a 30-mile radius, that is often the fastest option in urban traffic.

Live updates matter

Ask the dispatcher to share a live tracking link and a driver mobile number. Your production planner will use the ETA to time the restart — nothing else is more valuable in this situation. If the tracking is not live, phone the driver every 30 minutes for a position check.

What we do differently on line-down calls

CourierFly's control room treats every line-down call as an escalation from the moment it comes in:

1. Dispatch inside 30 minutes with the nearest driver, not the cheapest.
2. WhatsApp group opened between our controller, the driver and your production planner.
3. Live GPS tracking link sent to the goods-in team so they can meet the driver at the gate.
4. Signed proof of delivery photographed and emailed within one minute of unloading.

Have a supplier on retainer before you need one

The best time to open a courier account is before the line goes down, not after. Business credit accounts with CourierFly include priority dispatch, agreed rates and a named account manager who knows your sites. The credit application takes two minutes and we approve inside two working days. When the call comes in at 3 pm on a Friday, that account is worth what it saves in a single hour of downtime.