Print fulfilment/delivery

Background

During the purchase journeys of our 3 physical subscription product types (Paper voucher, paper home delivery and Guardian Weekly) we offer users a choice of "subscription start dates". The first day that their subscription can start (i.e. when they can first receive the voucher/product) varies depending on the day of purchase, the product type and the product option. The rules behind these fulfilment delays are not particularly consistent because the process for each product type is different.

Paper Vouchers (Everyday, Sixday, Saturday, Sunday, Weekend)

The voucher fulfilment job is run on a Wednesday and sends a file to our delivery partners containing new subscriptions that are to be fulfilled beyond the next 2 weeks (to allow for printing, delivery etc.) For users this means they will be shown start dates starting 3-4 weeks in advance.

Paper Home Delivery (Everyday, Sixday, Saturday, Sunday, Weekend)

Home delivery can be fulfilled faster but we allow a minimum 3 day lead time, plus extra to allow for bank holidays on Fridays and Mondays.

Guardian Weekly (Delivered Friday)

Guardian Weekly deliveries are fulfilled by a number of local partners. They will take the list of new subscribers sometime between Thursday - Monday and deliver those for the following Friday. This means we require a minimum lead time of 9 days in the case someone takes out a new subscription on the Wednesday.

Delivery Tables

In a month starting on Monday 1st the above requirements give us the following delivery days for purchases made on the days Monday 1st-Sunday 7th.

Paper Vouchers

Purchase day/Product	Everyday/Sixday	Saturday	Sunday
Mon 1st	22nd	27th	28th
Tues 2nd	22nd	27th	28th
Weds 3rd (before 6am)	22nd	27th	28th
Weds 3rd	29th	27th + 7	28th + 7
Thurs 4th	29th	27th + 7	28th + 7
Fri 5th	29th	27th + 7	28th + 7
Sat 6th	29th	27th + 7	28th + 7
Sun 7th	29th	27th + 7	28th + 7

Paper Home Delivery

Purchase day/Product	Everyday	Sixday	Weekend	Saturday	Sunday
Mon 1st	4th	4th	6th	6th	7th
Tues 2nd	5th	5th	6th	6th	7th
Weds 3rd	6th	6th	6th	6th	7th
Thurs 4th	10th	10th	13th	13th	14th
Fri 5th	10th	10th	13th	13th	14th
Sat 6th	10th	10th	13th	13th	14th
Sun 7th	10th	10th	13th	13th	14th

Guardian Weekly

Purchase day/Product	G Weekly
Mon 1st	12th
Tues 2nd	12th
Weds 3rd	12th
Thurs 4th	19th
Fri 5th	19th
Sat 6th	19th
Sun 7th	19th

fulfilment-date-calculator

The fulfilment-date-calculator does some date calculations related to fulfilment, putting the results in a few files in S3:

• first available date for holiday stops
• target processing date for holiday stops
• delivery address change effective date

Could support-frontend call that to find candidate first delivery dates to offer users on the checkout?

This was explored in this trello card, with the conclusion that it can’t be: the file format is awkward to consume (and would require consuming multiple files in the frontend to establish the dates), and we need a 5-week lookahead, which the calculator can’t do.

However, I’m not sure where the 5-week lookahead requirement came from, and suspect it might be a mistake. In the original PR introducing it there was some discussion of it, and it’s unclear whether this is an actual product requirement.