Transport and logistics
Findings

Regional road haulier · 3 depots in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes · 310 employees, 190 trucksThis War Map shows how we turn an operational review into an implementation plan. The dates show a possible sequence; the scope and schedule of a real engagement are agreed with you.

Findings

Where work gets held up, who has to step in, and what it costs in this example.

Work done, never invoiced

Telematics records every wait beyond free time. Only 140 of 610 sampled waits were invoiced, because billing reads extras from paper CMRs.

Orders typed by hand

About 1,000 orders a week arrive by email or phone and are keyed into the TMS. Customer service starts at 6:30 to keep up.

Subcontracting run from a notebook

290 trips a week go to subcontractors chosen by phone, with prices from memory and document checks when someone remembers.

Compliance in spreadsheets

Driver documents, training certificates and tachograph downloads are tracked in Excel. Three FCO certificates expire within 30 days without an alert.

Illustrative time allocation for 11 interview roles

Keying orders and trips
28%
Phone and email chasing
23%
Exceptions (delays, damage, no-shows)
16%
Planning and customer work
22%
Decisions
11%

These scenario percentages total 100%. They describe the 11 interview roles only and are not extrapolated to the 310 employees, most of whom are drivers.

Keying and chasing take 51% of the interviewed roles' time. Exceptions take 16%. Planning, customer work and decisions share the remaining 33%.

Key Insight: Exceptions on the road will always need people. The recoverable share sits in keying and chasing, where the information already exists in an email, a telematics record or a scan.

SOP vs. Reality

Order intakeSOP: 3 steps → The Reality: 8 steps, 2 handoffs
The SOP
Order received
Order entered in TMS
Order confirmed
3 steps, linear
The Reality
8
Steps
2
Handoffs
16:00 same-day cut-off
Cycle time
~1,000 manual orders/week
Volume

Customer service types most orders into the TMS from emails and phone notes. Missing details are chased by phone, and confirmations are written by hand.

The Gap
62% of orders arrive by email as PDFs, spreadsheets or free text and 18% by phone. Only 20% come through portals or EDI.
Each manual order takes about 2.5 minutes to key, longer when an address or slot is missing.
One order in eight needs a call back for missing information: delivery slot, tail lift or customer reference.
Duplicates appear when a customer emails and also uses the portal. Three double deliveries in May.
Trip planning and subcontractingSOP: 4 steps → The Reality: 9 steps, 3 handoffs
The SOP
Orders grouped
Trips assigned to own trucks
Remainder subcontracted
Drivers notified
4 steps, linear
The Reality
9
Steps
3
Handoffs
Board closes 18:30-19:00
Cycle time
~290 subcontracted trips/week
Volume

Each depot works from its own Excel board, checks driver hours one by one and phones subcontractors for the overflow. The board closes after a reshuffle for late orders.

The Gap
The TMS planning view is too slow for the 17:00 reshuffle, so each depot keeps its own Excel board and keys trips back afterwards.
Remaining driving time is checked truck by truck in telematics. Stéphane relies on memory for the drivers he knows.
Subcontractors are chosen by phone. Last prices paid sit in Cédric's notebook and inbox; rates on the same lane vary by up to 18%.
Carrier licence, insurance and URSSAF vigilance certificates are checked irregularly. 7 of 41 regular subcontractors had an expired certificate.
Waiting time and extrasSOP: 4 steps → The Reality: 8 steps, 3 handoffs
The SOP
Driver records extra
Planner validates
Extra billed with the trip
Customer invoiced
4 steps, linear
The Reality
8
Steps
3
Handoffs
Billed at month end
Cycle time
~150 waits/week in telematics
Volume

The evidence of waiting exists in telematics the moment it happens. Billing works from paper instead, so an extra is invoiced only if the driver wrote it down and the CMR came back.

The Gap
In a 4-week sample, telematics showed 610 waits beyond the agreed free time. 140 were invoiced.
Scenario: 470 unbilled waits in 4 weeks is about 6,110 a year; at an average of €48, about €293K. This is revenue for work performed, billable only where each customer contract allows it.
Free time and rates differ by customer and sit in contract PDFs, outside the TMS.
Customers dispute waiting time for lack of timestamps. The timestamps exist in telematics; nobody attaches them.
Damage claimsSOP: 4 steps → The Reality: 10 steps, 4 handoffs
The SOP
Reserve noted on CMR
Claim file built
Liability decided
Settlement
4 steps, linear
The Reality
10
Steps
4
Handoffs
38 days to close; ~3 h per file
Cycle time
~35 claims/month
Volume

Each claim needs the CMR and its reserves, photos, arrival times and the driver's account. These sit in a scan archive, on phones, in telematics and, for subcontracted trips, in another company's office.

The Gap
40% of 2025 claim files had no delivery photo, often because the ePOD sync failed or the trip was subcontracted.
Reserves written on the CMR are the main defence. They are found by scrolling through scans filed by date.
About 3 hours per file, of which about 1.5 hours is searching. 38 days on average to close.
Customers often offset claims against invoices before a settlement is agreed, which leaves billing with unexplained short payments.
Fuel surchargeSOP: 3 steps → The Reality: 7 steps, 2 handoffs
The SOP
Monthly index published
Surcharge calculated
Applied to invoices
3 steps, linear
The Reality
7
Steps
2
Handoffs
Monthly, 2-day lag
Cycle time
~180 contracts
Volume

French road haulage contracts must pass on changes in diesel cost, and most customers use the CNR index. The calculation and its entry into the TMS are manual, which creates lags and corrections.

The Gap
14 customers have their own formula, with different reference prices and dates.
The index is copied into Excel by hand, then rates are typed into the TMS customer by customer.
In March, 6 customers were invoiced at the previous month's rate. Corrections took 31 credit notes and rebills.
Brigitte is the only person who knows the 14 formulas.
Key Insight: The five sample comparisons show 166.7%, 125%, 100%, 150% and 133.3% more steps, respectively: (actual ÷ documented − 1) × 100. Exceptions on the road are real work; most of the extra steps copy information that already exists in another system.

Work that needs attention

Customer serviceEmail and phone orders keyed into the TMS: ~1,000/week × 2.5 min41.7h
OperationsExcel boards rebuilt at 3 depots; driver hours checked truck by truck12h
SubcontractingSubcontractors found by phone, priced and confirmed by email: ~290 trips/week × 4 min19.3h
FinancePaper CMRs read by hand for extras and customer references14h
QualityClaim evidence gathered: 35 files/month × 1.5 h of search; 35 × 1.5 × 12 ÷ 52 = 12.1h/week12.1h
FleetDriver documents, training dates and tachograph downloads followed in Excel5h
FinanceFuel surcharge recalculated and keyed into the TMS: 10 h/month; 10 × 12 ÷ 52 = 2.3h/week2.3h
SubcontractingSubcontractor vigilance certificates and insurance checked irregularlyongoing
106.4 person-hours/week across 7 quantified rows; 1 unquantified risk106.4 h
Key Insight: Monthly volumes are converted to weekly hours (× 12 ÷ 52). The claims row counts only the evidence search, not the liability assessment. Rows are scoped to avoid double counting; time spent is not automatically recoverable, and phone orders will keep needing a person.

Risk Register

RevenueCritical
Extras performed, never billed
About €293K a year of waiting time recorded in telematics and missing from invoices.
LegalCritical
Subcontractor vigilance
7 of 41 regular subcontractors had an expired URSSAF vigilance certificate. A company that fails this check can be held jointly liable for a subcontractor's unpaid social contributions.
ComplianceCritical
Driver documents tracked in Excel
Three FCO training certificates expire within 30 days without an alert. Driver card downloads are due every 28 days and are chased by hand.
Single point of failureHigh
Stéphane Ferrand, Lyon planning
Knows which drivers suit which customers and docks. When he is away, the Lyon board takes two people and closes an hour later.
Single point of failureHigh
Brigitte Vial, fuel surcharge
The only person who knows the 14 customer-specific surcharge formulas.
ClaimsHigh
Claims without evidence
40% of 2025 claim files had no photo and 22% no reserve on the CMR. Without them, liability is harder to contest.
Data integrityMedium
Two versions of the plan
The Excel boards and the TMS disagree until trips are keyed back, sometimes the next morning. Customer status questions are answered from the boards.
MarginMedium
Subcontracting prices from memory
No price history across 290 subcontracted trips a week. Rates paid on the same lane vary by up to 18%.
Next Chapter
Implementation plan

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A real engagement is scoped in the Strategy Session and may begin with a War Map or a bounded Feasibility Sprint.

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