[Discussion] we are measuring carrier at the wrong time and calling it noise
we are measuring carrier at the wrong time and calling it noise. It is the sort of thing everyone half-believes and nobody writes down. Clearance took three days and the carrier took nine. I had been blaming the wrong half for two years. Posted my first lane report here without the month and got asked for it. Fair,…
Total transit decomposes into first mile, international leg, clearance and last mile. Only the first two are meaningfully under the shipper’s control and most reported variance sits in the last two.
the last mile is where most of the variance lives
A lane is an origin, a destination, a carrier and a season. Change any one and the distribution changes, which is why supplier-level shipping averages are close to meaningless.
Correction: that was clearance time, not carrier time. The lane table separates them for exactly this reason.
That is the quoted lead time, not the observed transit. Both belong in the report and they are different columns.
Packaging is assessable on arrival with no equipment: rigid outer, no movement inside, the cold element sized to the transit rather than to the box.