Reading a carrier scorecard without drowning in the average

Averages are polite. Georgian highway work is not. A haulier can keep a 92 percent on-time month and still ruin a store programme if the misses bunch on the same weekday, usually the day the Poti gate ran slow and everyone pretended the inland promise was independent.

When we draw a lane scorecard we insist on three cuts before any ranking: the week, the arrival band (night versus day), and the promised window you actually sold — not the window the carrier prefers in writing. A night arrival that hits the yard at 02:00 may be “early” on paper and a problem for a dock that does not open until 06:00.

Detention conversations go better when the picture shows waiting after the appointment, not waiting because the truck came three hours adrift. The first is a yard cost. The second is a plan that was never true.

If you only have PODs with a date and no time, say so. A scorecard that pretends to know the hour will be a short story, not a record. Better a coarse weekly picture than a precise fiction.

We still meet planners who want a single ranking of “best carrier.” Rankings are for tenders. For running a week, you need the Thursday.