The invisible loan you give your customers
Every day between delivery and invoice is a day of revenue you have earned but cannot collect. In transport, where margins are thin and volume is high, a seven-day invoicing lag is effectively an interest-free loan you extend to your customers — funded by your own working capital.
The math operators skip
Take a 3PL billing $30M a year. That is roughly $82k of revenue earned per day. Invoice seven days late instead of one, and you are permanently carrying six days of unbilled work — about $490k tied up at any moment. At a 10% cost of capital, that lag alone costs ~$49k a year in financing, before a single late-payment problem.
Why the lag happens
- POD collection: Invoices wait on proof of delivery trickling in from drivers and carriers.
- Rate reconciliation: Surcharges and levies get applied manually, days after the job.
- Batch billing: Weekly or fortnightly billing cycles institutionalise the delay.
Closing the gap
When ePOD, rate cards, and invoicing live in the same system, the invoice can be generated the moment delivery is confirmed. Cutting the lag from seven days to one releases most of that trapped capital — and it compounds every month for free.