Transportation: Vendor Inbound Freight

Manage With Information: The Audit

The first step to properly managing your VIF program is to conduct an audit, which should help to answer the following questions:

* Who are your top 20 vendors?
* Where is your freight originating?
* What are the volumes in each traffic lane (e.g., weight, pieces)?
* What freight classifications are you using (e.g., freight all kinds)?
* How many freight carriers do you use?
* What volume does each carrier haul?
* What percentage of your business is truckload versus less-than-truckload (LTL)?
* What’s the current volume of small-package deliveries (e.g., UPS, FedEx)?
* How reliable are your inbound vendor shipments (that is, on-time delivery)?
* What percentage of your suppliers currently drop-ship?
* How many of your inbound vendors supply advance shipping notices?
* How many of your suppliers/carriers are using electronic data interchange (EDI) or provide Internet visibility?
* Do you currently have “in-transit” tracking of your freight?
* What system do you use to identify and control multiple ship methods?
* What level of compliance do you get with your vendor-routing guidelines?