Field Notes
Where your on-time clock should actually start
Booking confirmation, gate-in, or unload complete? How freight teams choose a shipping SLA clock that survives Monday arguments.
Ask five planners when a shipment becomes “on the clock” and you may hear five answers. Booking confirmation flatters sales. Gate-in flatters the yard. Unload complete flatters the customer promise. A shipping SLA performance dashboard that mixes those starts will look confident and still be wrong.
A workable rule
Pick the timestamp closest to the promise you sell. If stores buy a delivery window, unload complete or delivery scan usually belongs on the board. If the commercial argument is trunk reliability between depots, gate-in at the receiving yard may be enough.
Write the exceptions
Weather holds, customer refusals, and booking amendments need named treatments before charts go live. Otherwise every spike becomes a debate about definitions instead of action.
What we do in workshops
WillowPoint System lists each candidate clock, walks two weeks of sample shipments, and freezes one definition before drawing lane charts. That freeze is dull on paper and priceless in stand-up.