Logistics template

A carrier is only late relative to something, which is why this template gives routes a target transit time and shipments a derived actual. Once a shipment points at both a lane and a carrier, the two questions that matter separate cleanly: is this route slow, or is this carrier slow on it? The sample rows cover a few exceptions so the on-time chart is not a flat wall of green on the day you open it.

One consignment, one row: each shipment points at both a route and a carrier and carries a reference, a status, a dispatch date and a Transit days column no human ever types. SH-4412, Rotterdam to Milan, Delmar Freight, In transit, dispatched 16 Feb. Carriers holds one row per haulier you contract: the mode they run, the rate they charge, the contact for dispatch, the date the contract runs to, and an On-time rate formula counting across every shipment attached to them. Routes is the lane list: the lane itself, its distance, its mode, a target transit time, an expected cost per shipment, and a running count of the shipments that have used it.

Late means nothing on its own. A carrier is only late relative to a number written down somewhere, and here that somewhere is the Routes table, where every lane carries a target transit time and an expected cost. The moment a shipment points at both a lane and a carrier, the two questions people conflate come apart cleanly: is this route slow, or is this carrier slow on this route? Skip the lane as its own row and every delay reads as a carrier problem, and you end up renegotiating the wrong contract.

On-time by carrier plots delivered against target with the average overrun in days beside it, so the carrier running an hour late and the one running two days late stop being the same red bar. Transit time by lane draws actual against target over time. That second chart is where a route that's been getting slower since November finally shows itself: the drift nobody catches shipment by shipment, because each one is only a little late. The sample shipments include a few exceptions on purpose; neither chart opens as a wall of green.

“Which lanes are running longer than their target transit time” checks the formula on the shipment against the number on the route. “Which carrier has the worst on-time record this quarter” reads the rollup already sitting on the carrier row. “What's in transit right now, and when should it land”: the status column answers that one on sight. And “what does an average shipment cost us on the Rotterdam lane” comes off the route row plus every shipment attached to it.

A late flag says a shipment missed its window; the monthly carrier review turns on why it missed. Link an Exceptions table to Shipments and every delay starts carrying a cause: customs, say, or a missed collection, or a pallet that arrived damaged, and the review becomes a conversation with evidence in it. Fuel surcharges come in the same way. So does a second leg per shipment, or a customer per consignment.

A freight forwarder. A shipper managing its own outbound. A distributor with a handful of hauliers on contract, or an operations lead who's been asked to prove which carrier is actually the problem. What it isn't: a transport management system: no rating, no booking, no live tracking feeds. It's where the performance record lives, and it's honest about that.

Routes and carriers go in first so shipments have something to point at; the consignments follow. CSV and XLSX import directly, and a Google Sheet someone already keeps updating can stay connected instead of being re-uploaded each month. Bring a few months of history if you have it: the lane chart earns its place on drift, and drift only shows over a season.