A transport business has three records that should connect and usually do not: the bilty raised at booking, the trip sheet the vehicle ran on, and the settlement with the driver or hired vehicle afterwards.
When they are kept separately — often a book, a diary and a ledger — lane profitability becomes an opinion, and it is usually a generous one.
The three records and why they drift
The consignment note records what was booked: consignor, consignee, goods, chargeable weight, agreed freight. The trip sheet records what ran: vehicle, driver, route, dates, advances taken. The settlement records what was paid out: driver advances reconciled, fuel, tolls, hired vehicle charges.
Each is maintained by a different person for a different purpose, and nothing forces them to agree. The consignment gets amended at delivery and the trip sheet does not. An advance is taken against a trip that later splits into two. By month end nobody can say what a lane earned.
Bill from delivered, not from booked
This is the single change that recovers the most money. If invoices are raised from the booking, every short delivery, damage and return becomes a customer deduction you argue about after the fact — and lose, because they have the proof of delivery and you do not.
Billing from the delivered consignment, with exceptions recorded against the document at the point of delivery, puts the evidence on your side and removes the argument. It also means the invoice matches reality, which makes the receivable collectable.
Advances are where cash quietly disappears
Driver advances are given against trips and reconciled at settlement. When the advance is recorded in a ledger rather than against the trip, two things follow: advances issued against trips that never ran are hard to spot, and a driver with several open trips can carry a balance nobody has totalled.
Attaching the advance to the trip makes settlement arithmetic rather than negotiation, and makes the outstanding position per driver a number rather than a memory.
Hired vehicles need the same discipline
Most transporters run a mix of owned and hired. Hired vehicle bills should match the trip they ran, with advances netted off before payment, exactly as with an internal trip.
Without that match, hired vehicle cost sits in a general expense account and lane profitability silently excludes the trips you subcontracted — which are frequently the marginal ones you most need to understand.
What to be able to answer
Three questions, without preparation: what did this lane earn after all costs last month; which consignments are delivered but not yet invoiced; and what is outstanding with each driver and each hired vehicle supplier right now.
A business that can answer those is running on data. One that cannot is running on the assumption that the busy lanes are the profitable ones, which is true less often than you would hope.
Common questions
What is a bilty?
The consignment note raised at booking, recording consignor, consignee, goods, chargeable weight and agreed freight. It is the document the whole movement hangs off, which is why it should connect to the trip and the settlement rather than sitting alone.
Should we invoice from the booking or the delivery?
From the delivered consignment, with exceptions recorded at the point of delivery. Invoicing from the booking means every short delivery becomes a customer deduction you argue about afterwards without the evidence.
How should driver advances be tracked?
Against the trip, not in a general ledger. That makes settlement arithmetic rather than negotiation, and makes each driver’s outstanding balance a figure rather than a recollection.