Carrier Performance Review

D03 - Vendor Contract Quality

Definition

A recurring quarterly assessment of a logistics carrier's actual delivery performance, measured from your operational data rather than the carrier's self-reported dashboard.

Carrier self-reported performance rates often overstate actual delivery rates — in some cases by more than 20 percentage points, as the Northgate Services Group case illustrates. A carrier who reports 97% on-time may be delivering 73% against your independently measured rate.

This is a gap that's invisible until you build your measurement system.

Indicators

• You are accepting carrier performance reports at face value without independently verifying them from your delivery data.
• No carrier relationship has ever been formally flagged or renegotiated based on a documented performance trend.
• You can't state your top three carriers' on-time rates from your data right now.

Quick Win

• Pull your top carrier's self-reported on-time rate.
• Now pull three recent deliveries from your tracking system and check them independently.
• If the gap is more than a few points, you have found your problem.

Assess

• Take the HQ Score Assessment

Apply

• The Vendor Contract Audit Workbook
• The Vendor Contract Audit Checklist
• The Vendor RFP Process Checklist

Related

• SLA (Service-Level Agreement)
• Performance Drift
• Vendor Performance Scorecard