With efficiency key to success in the industry, for many distributors, daily operations rely heavily on digital systems – from customer orders and delivery schedules to vehicle tracking, invoicing, and stock control.
But what if those systems suddenly became unavailable?
Recent UK business downtime, exemplified by the broadly reported Marks & Spencer cyber-attack, has caused substantial financial and customer impacts, with the retailer anticipating a £300 million profit hit. A similar cyber-attack affected Jaguar Land Rover, caused a prolonged production stoppage for weeks, significantly affecting suppliers and retailers.
Examples of Recent System Downtime
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) Cyber-attack (September 2025)
Cause: Cyber-attack.
Impact: Production at key manufacturing plants was paused for weeks.
Financial and Customer Impact: Disrupted retailers and workshops, leading to a scramble for liquidity among suppliers. The wider disruption affected the entire automotive supply chain.
Marks & Spencer (M&S) Cyber-attack (Easter 2025)
Cause: Cyber-attack.
Impact: Online services, click-and-collect, and contactless payments were disrupted.
Financial and Customer Impact: M&S took its online systems offline, suspending online ordering and expecting a £300 million reduction in annual profits. The incident led to significant operational challenges and negative customer experiences.
Broader Impacts on UK Businesses
Economic Costs:
UK businesses experienced over 50 million hours of internet downtime in 2023, resulting in financial losses exceeding £3.7 billion. The total UK economy lost £17.6 billion due to fixed business connectivity outages in the year prior to May 2025.
Financial Impact:
Lost Revenue: Direct losses from halted online transactions and missed sales opportunities.
Hidden Costs: Businesses incur costs for overtime pay, emergency IT support, and potential legal fees for breaches.
Small Businesses: A single downtime incident can cost SMEs up to £212,000, with some larger businesses facing losses upwards of £300,000 per hour.
Operational and Customer Impact:
Service Disruption: Customer service cannot access records, leading to frustrated customers.
Productivity Loss: Productivity drops significantly during outages, with employee productivity sometimes only reaching 63%.
Reputational Damage: Reputational damage can occur when systems fail, making businesses appear unreliable.
Beyond large-scale incidents, data shows the UK economy lost £17.6 billion from fixed business internet outages in the past year, with individual SMEs facing costs of over £212,000 per incident for lost productivity and revenue.
Whether due to a cyberattack, power outage, or server failure, most small and medium-sized distributors would struggle to operate without digital infrastructure for even 24 hours. Set against a backdrop of increasing digital dependency, this article explores how to assess your vulnerability and build the resilience needed to keep your business functioning for at least 72 hours during a digital blackout.
Business continuity checklist: Can you operate without digital systems?
System audit
- List all critical systems (CRM, routing, invoicing, stock)
- Identify dependencies for each system
- Highlight single points of failure (SPOFs)
Manual workarounds
- Printed order forms, delivery notes, customer contact lists
- Offline access to pricing, contracts, and delivery terms
- Staff trained in paper-based scheduling and record-keeping
Data backup and recovery
- Daily backups running automatically
- Backups stored both onsite and offsite/cloud
- Recovery tested at least quarterly
Emergency planning
- Roles assigned for system outage response
- Hard copy emergency contact list (IT, drivers, key customers)
- Paper-based process drill completed or scheduled
Cyber security
- Password policy enforced and reviewed
- Cyber hygiene training completed
- Antivirus and systems regularly updated
- Cyber insurance reviewed and active
The risk: digital dependency
A distributor’s business continuity plan must focus on maintaining essential functions such as fuel delivery, customer communication, and financial operations. The loss of digital systems can threaten your ability to perform even the most basic tasks.
Core functions that are, typically, reliant on digital systems:
- Customer order taking and CRM
- Delivery routeing and scheduling
- Stock and inventory management
- Tank telemetry
- Invoicing and financial systems
- Email and internal communications
- Payroll and HR systems
Failure in any one of these areas can cause major disruption. A failure in all of them? Catastrophic.
Common digital system threats include:
- Cyberattacks (ransomware, phishing)
- Internet/network outages
- Cloud provider downtime
- Hardware/server failure
The financial and operational impact
Based on industry estimates:
- Missed deliveries per day: £5,000–£20,000 in revenue loss
- Increased driver hours for manual rerouting: +20–30%
- IT recovery costs: £2,000–£10,000+, depending on severity
- Customer loss risk: due to order delays, billing errors, or poor communication
- Reputational damage: long-term trust erosion
Planning for 3-day operational resilience
The goal isn’t to create full digital redundancy, but to ensure basic continuity: fuel deliveries, customer communication, and payment handling must continue.
Step 1: Audit your critical systems and single points of failure
A Single Point of Failure (SPOF) is any system, person, or component whose failure would halt a critical business function.
Examples of SPOFs in fuel distribution:
- Technology: CRM, routing software, systems with single-user access only
- People: One person responsible for payroll, IT recovery, or route planning
- Infrastructure: Single internet line, local server without redundancy
How to mitigate SPOFs:
- Add data and staff backups
- Share access and responsibilities
- Use redundant systems (cloud, local, hybrid)
- Conduct “what if” scenario mapping: “If this fails, what happens?”
Step 2: Identify and prioritise critical functions
- Fuel delivery: Ensure routeing and scheduling can continue
- Customer service: Accept and respond to orders/issues manually
- Financial processes: Process invoices, payments, and wages without systems
- Stock management: Keep fuel transfer records and stock levels updated manually
Step 3: Develop manual workarounds
- Maintain printed routeing maps, manifests, and contact lists
- Use paper forms or spreadsheets for order taking and delivery logging
- Store offline copies of key pricing, contracts, and account info
- Schedule deliveries using whiteboards, logs, or printouts
Step 4: Secure communication channels
- Maintain backup mobile phones or radio systems
- Print emergency contact sheets for depot staff and drivers
Step 5: Implement robust data backup and recovery protocols
- Daily automatic data backups (CRM, accounts, delivery history)
- Store backups both onsite and offsite / in the cloud
- Test data recovery processes every quarter
Step 6: Strengthen cyber defences
- Enforce strong password policies and password manager use
- Train all staff in phishing prevention and cyber hygiene
- Ensure antivirus and operating systems are up-to-date
- Consider cyber insurance, including business interruption cover
Step 7: Maintain fuel supply and fleet readiness
- Track stock manually and record depot levels
- Identify alternative storage or supply routes
- Establish delivery prioritisation for critical customers
- Ensure vehicle maintenance logs are accessible offline
Step 8: Train staff and test your plan
- Assign clear responsibilities in case of a system failure
- Train on paper-based workflows
- Simulate system failure scenarios and review lessons learned
Example scenario: a 3-day digital blackout
Day 1: CRM and routeing systems are hit by ransomware.
- Orders are taken by phone and logged on printed forms
- Routes built from printed maps and recent order history
- Drivers use paper manifests and call for updates
Day 2: Deliveries continue, though less efficiently.
- Paper invoices are issued
- Key customers contacted by phone with service updates
Day 3: IT support begins restoring data from backups.
- Delivery logs re-entered into systems
- No customer lost thanks to clear communication and continuity of service
Conclusion: You don’t need to go fully analogue – just be prepared
Think of your business continuity plan like insurance – you hope not to need it, but when you do, it can save your business. Even a basic 3-day plan can make the difference between a temporary setback and lasting disruption.
Action plan
- Identify your top 5 digital dependencies
- Develop manual alternatives for each
- Run a 1-day paper-only drill this quarter
- Review your data backup setup
- Train staff on outage procedures
Resilience doesn’t require perfection – just preparation.
Image credit: iStock/Smederevac
