The practice of formal freight carrier performance reviews to reduce the risk of landed cost budget
variances. A formal freight carrier performance evaluation is crucial as transportation partners
represent the interface between supplier and customer. The quality of delivery on time and in good
condition has enormous impact on customer satisfaction, return rates and repeat sales
A carrier evaluation program needs a comprehensive list of evaluation metrics to reflect overall
service performance and cost improvement objectives. Evaluation criteria should include quantitative
as well as qualitative measures. Quantitative criteria may include on-time delivery performance,
claims ratios, billing accuracy, cost performance and other measurable criteria. Qualitative measures
may include driver and sales representative responsiveness, the quality of customer service,
stakeholder surveys, customer complaints or other value-based assessments
In addition, a freight carrier`s delivery performance and impact related to supply lead-time variability
(due to early and late deliveries) should be evaluated. If a product is shipped to a customer and it
arrives late: then limited/no inventory available. Conversely, if a supplier ships raw material to a
company and the shipment is received prior to the need date - then excess inventory is carried. This
would require a work process that investigates reasons and how to manage such situations (i.e.
situation attributable to supplier purposely shipping product early to move inventory quickly;
receiving company may delay shipment receipt until inventory is needed; adjust the transit lead time
to safeguard against this type of situations which is causing additional inventory due to carrier
delivery performance)