Continental Freight Solutions, Inc.

3 loads (SHP100014, SHP100064, SHP100076) accumulated 63.5 hours of detention that were logged as non-billable despite the delay being customer-caused. Across the full 200-load window, 148.5 hours of detention were routed to non-billable status while detention_billed_amount stayed at $0.

• detention_billable_flag defaulting to 'N' at dispatch
• No policy tying detention flag to shipper contract terms
• Ops team accepts driver-side detention notes without customer sign-off

• Reflag the 3 high-hour loads and issue accessorial invoices this week
• Change detention_billable_flag default to 'Y' once threshold hours exceeded
• Introduce a weekly detention exception review with the customer-service lead

11 loads carry a primary_leakage_signal of EXCESS_FUEL, with actual_mpg 20–45% below the planned baseline. Aggregate fuel overrun on the observation window is $10,823 against a planned fuel budget of $205K (a 5.3% variance).

• No fuel-burn variance alert in the TMS
• Tractor maintenance intervals not driven by MPG trend
• Route profiles (elevation, headwind) not fed back into planned MPG

• Ground-truth the top-5 EXCESS_FUEL tractors for injector/aero issues within 14 days
• Publish weekly actual-vs-planned MPG scorecard by tractor
• Recalibrate planned MPG per lane using rolling 90-day actuals

4 loads (SHP100032, SHP100139, SHP100151, SHP100185) show permit_status = 'Expired' on shipments that required a permit and were nonetheless invoiced. Total exposed invoiced revenue: $38.4K. This is a hard compliance risk — state-level fines and customer-side clawback both apply.

• Permit renewals not gated at load-tender
• No calendar-based permit expiry watch
• Dispatch overrides not logged for audit

• Immediately renew the 4 expired permits and notify affected customers
• Block load-tender when permit_status ≠ 'Valid'
• Assign named owner for permit calendar with 30/15/5-day renewal alerts

11 loads carry the HIGH_IDLE signal. 4 drivers (DRV2414, DRV2403, DRV2302, DRV2488) account for 55% of the idle hours flagged. Fuel cost, engine wear and HOS exposure all compound on this pattern.

• No idle-hour alert in the ELD feed
• Driver behaviour coaching not tied to idle data
• Sleeper-berth policy not enforced in warm-weather lanes

• 1:1 coaching for the top-4 idle-hour drivers this month
• Set an ELD idle-time alert at 3h/day per unit
• Add idle-hour metric to the driver scorecard

8 loads carry the EMPTY_MILES signal, all on outbound long-haul lanes (CA→OK, WA→ON, TX→MX among them). Empty ratios reach 79% (SHP100081: 1,413 empty of 1,948 total). Every empty mile is a burnt fuel cost with no revenue on it.

• No backhaul matching for these origin/destination pairs
• Broker board not queried before dispatch on return leg
• Volume commitment on the outbound leg dictates deadhead

• Wire the 5 highest-empty-mile lanes to a backhaul matching queue
• Introduce a 24h broker-board scan on return-leg dispatch
• Renegotiate volume commitments where deadhead exceeds 30%

25 loads (12.5%) delivered late, with a further 4 On Time but At Risk. The pattern concentrates on customers CUST1162, CUST1193 and CUST1044 — each of whom carries penalty clauses in the master service agreement.

• No live customer-level OTD dashboard
• Loads dispatched without slack against planned_delivery_datetime
• Detention on inbound legs cascades into late outbound

• Introduce customer-level OTD dashboard reviewed weekly
• Add 90-min planning buffer on the three at-risk lanes
• Escalate any load with ≥2 late deliveries in trailing 30 days to ops director

4 loads carry the BORDER_DELAY signal, with border_delay_hours between 35.6 and 43.5. Three of the four cross into Canada at the same corridor. Driver HOS is compromised on every one of these loads.

• ACI / eManifest submitted late
• Broker filings not synchronised with load-tender
• No pre-clearance workflow for high-value equipment

• Move ACI submission to 4h pre-arrival minimum
• Retain a Canadian customs broker with an SLA
• Route Canada-bound loads through the 2 lowest-delay ports of entry

4 loads carry the ROUTE_DEVIATION signal, with GPS variance from planned distance between 114 and 295 miles. Every deviated mile burns fuel, ages the tractor and eats margin.

• No live-vs-planned route monitoring in the TMS
• Driver preference over TMS-optimised route
• Detour justifications not captured

• Introduce a >5% deviation alert in the TMS
• Require driver-side reason code for any deviation >20 miles
• Post-trip route review on all flagged deviations

6 loads carry the DRIVER_OVERTIME signal. Actual driver hours on these loads run 60–90% above planned, cutting into HOS compliance headroom and driving OT premium cost.

• Planned_driver_hours understated on these lanes
• Detention time cascading into driving-time overrun
• No mid-trip HOS check-in

• Recalibrate planned_driver_hours on the 3 worst lanes
• Pair overtime loads with a relay driver where lane volume supports it
• Mandatory mid-trip check-in above 8h drive time

4 tractors (TRK3021, TRK3418, TRK3048, TRK3379) show asset_utilization_pct below 25% on the loads they ran. Fixed cost (financing, insurance, driver assignment) is not being amortised.

• Tractors assigned to lanes below their optimal load size
• Domicile / lane mismatch
• No systematic utilization review

• Rebalance the 4 low-utilization units to higher-volume domiciles
• Add asset_utilization_pct to the weekly ops review
• Consider a lease-buyout decision on any tractor stuck below 30% for 90 days

2 loads (SHP100008, SHP100174) show actual_toll_cost 2–3× the planned figure. On SHP100174, actual toll was $148 against planned $44 on a GA→QC route — indicating either a routing change or a mis-planned toll model.

• Toll model in the routing engine outdated on cross-border lanes
• Driver-side toll route override
• No post-trip toll reconciliation

• Refresh the toll-model per lane quarterly
• Reconcile driver toll receipts against planned monthly
• Restrict toll-route overrides above a variance threshold

Across the 200-load window, every row with detention_hours > 0 also carries detention_billable_flag = 'N' and detention_billed_amount = $0. This is not an anomaly on 3 loads — it's a system-wide default that suppresses accessorial revenue on ~50% of loads that experienced detention.

• TMS field defaults to 'N' regardless of contract terms
• Contract detention terms not mirrored in TMS master data
• No monthly detention-billing reconciliation

• Rewire TMS default to derive detention_billable_flag from the customer's MSA
• Backfill the trailing 90 days of billable detention and issue supplementary invoices
• Monthly detention-billing reconciliation between ops and finance

fuel_price_per_gallon ranges from $3.15 to $4.28 across loads dispatched in overlapping weeks. Spread is not fully explained by geography — indicates missed opportunity on network fuel cards and volume discounts.

• No preferred fuel-stop network on some lanes
• Driver-side stop choice not incentivised on price
• Fuel-card rebate terms not enforced

• Publish a preferred fuel-stop map to drivers with the card discount overlaid
• Introduce a driver bonus tied to $/gal below lane median
• Renegotiate fuel-card volume tier at the next contract review

Beyond the 4 loads with an outright Expired permit, another 18 border-crossing loads show permit_required_flag = 'Y' with no permit expiry date recorded. Every one of those is a latent compliance risk.

• Permit_status is a free-text field, not a linked record
• No integration between load-tender and permit master data
• Manual permit filing at dispatch

• Convert permit_status to a foreign key on a permit master with expiry
• Auto-attach permit ID to every cross-border load at tender
• Quarterly compliance audit sampling 20 cross-border loads

A small cluster of loads carries equipment_type inconsistent with commodity — e.g. Conestoga assigned to a Transformer (SHP100003), where a Double-Drop or Multi-Axle is the norm. Wrong equipment drives excess fuel, longer transit and higher damage risk.

• No equipment-to-commodity matrix in the dispatch tool
• Equipment availability overriding commodity fit
• No post-trip review on damage-adjacent commodities

• Publish a commodity-to-equipment matrix and hard-enforce at dispatch
• Track damage claims by commodity/equipment combo
• Escalate any mismatch above a defined weight/dimension threshold

20+ loads carry gps_variance_miles > 15 without a corresponding ROUTE_DEVIATION signal. This is a data-quality gap: real deviations are being masked because the detection threshold is set too high.

• Deviation threshold set at absolute miles, not % of planned distance
• GPS variance not surfaced on the ops dashboard
• No feedback loop into route planning

• Change deviation threshold to >5% of planned distance
• Surface top-10 GPS variance loads weekly
• Feed GPS variance back into the route planner monthly

Gross margin at the load level ranges from 32% to 78%. Sub-40% loads cluster on 3 customers, suggesting either mispriced lanes or accessorial revenue that never made it onto the invoice — often both.

• Contract rates not refreshed against current cost base
• Accessorial revenue not systematically billed
• No margin-alert on load creation

• Add a red-flag alert on any load with margin below 40%
• Quarterly rate review with the bottom-5 margin customers
• Tie sales commission to gross margin, not gross revenue