Worked scenario
Freight moved on credit terms nobody agreed to
Transport is a business with immediate costs and delayed revenue, and the delay is usually larger than the terms that were agreed.
3 min read
Fuel is paid for today, drivers weekly, and the invoice is settled in sixty or ninety days. The operator funds the difference, and the funding cost is rarely attributed to the customer causing it.
Agreed terms and actual behaviour
These are different numbers and only the first is usually known. A customer on sixty-day terms who pays in ninety is costing an extra month of working capital, and their rate does not reflect it.
Disputes masquerade as slow payment
A meaningful share of overdue invoices are not slow — they are queried, and nobody is resolving the query. Separating the two changes what is chased and by whom.
Rate is not the whole comparison
Between two customers at the same rate, the one paying in thirty days is materially better business. Operators competing purely on rate frequently win the customers with the worst payment behaviour, which is not a coincidence.
What changes
- Actual days-to-pay tracked per customer against agreed terms
- Ageing reviewed weekly rather than at month end
- Disputes identified as a separate category from slow payment
- New business assessed on payment behaviour, not only on rate
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