LTL Carrier Scorecard: 12 Metrics to Track and How to Weight Them

Below is a 12-metric template with a formula, a target, and a suggested weighting for each.

The 12 metrics

Service

1. On-time pickup. Pickups made within the scheduled window, divided by total pickups. Target 95%. LTL pickup failures cascade into missed delivery windows because the freight misses the outbound linehaul that night.

2. On-time delivery. Deliveries made by the committed date, divided by total deliveries. Target 95%. Measure against the carrier's commitment rather than your internal expectation, so the conversation stays factual.

3. Transit time variance. Average actual transit days minus published service days, by lane. Target within 0.5 days. A carrier that is reliably one day slow is a planning problem you can solve. A carrier with wide variance is not.

4. Exception rate. Shipments with a service exception logged, divided by total shipments. Target under 3%.

Cost and billing

5. Reweigh rate. Shipments reweighed by the carrier, divided by total shipments. Target under 3%. A high reweigh rate usually means your shipping system weights are wrong rather than that the carrier is wrong.

6. Reclass rate. Shipments reclassified by the carrier, divided by total shipments. Target under 2%. Reclassification is the most expensive correction in LTL because it changes the rate basis, not just the weight.

7. Reweigh and reclass cost impact. Total dollars added by corrections, divided by shipments. Track the dollars rather than only the rate, because a 2% reclass rate on your highest-value lanes can cost more than a 6% rate elsewhere.

8. Invoice accuracy. Invoices matching the quoted amount, divided by total invoices. Target 98%. Below that, someone on your team is auditing invoices manually every week.

9. Accessorial rate. Shipments with at least one accessorial charge, divided by total shipments. Watch for accessorials that cluster at one facility, which points at your dock rather than the carrier.

Freight handling

10. Claims ratio. Claims filed, divided by total shipments. Target under 0.5%.

11. Claims dollars as a share of spend. Total claim value divided by total spend with that carrier. This is the figure to bring to a carrier meeting, because a low claims count on high-value freight can still be a real loss.

12. Claims resolution time. Average days from filing to settlement. Target 30 days. Slow resolution is a cost even when the claim is eventually paid.

A sample weighting

Weight the scorecard to match what failure actually costs you on LTL freight.

• On-time delivery 20%
• On-time pickup 10%
• Transit variance 5%
• Exception rate 5%
• Invoice accuracy 15%
• Reweigh rate 10%
• Reclass rate 10%
• Accessorial rate 5%
• Claims ratio 10%
• Claims dollars 5%
• Claims resolution 5%

That puts 40% on billing and classification accuracy, which is where LTL spend leaks in ways a rate comparison never shows. If your freight is time-critical, move ten points from the billing group to on-time delivery.

Scoring rules that keep the template honest

Score by lane and by facility, not just by carrier. A carrier can hold 94% on-time across your network and sit at 71% into your slowest dock.

Put the target next to every number. A metric without a threshold tells you what happened, not whether it was acceptable.

Set a minimum shipment count before a carrier gets a score. Twelve shipments is a sample, not a performance record.

Give carriers the scorecard. If a carrier sees the numbers for the first time in a quarterly meeting, the meeting becomes a debate about the data instead of a conversation about fixing it.

Where software helps

GoodShip supports LTL procurement alongside FTL and intermodal in the same platform, and gives carriers self-service access to their own scorecards through a dedicated carrier portal, where they can see current contracts, revenue to date, and where they stand on metrics like on-time delivery and tender acceptance. Scorecard visibility is controlled by the shipper, and carriers also receive a weekly scorecard email.

GoodShip also flags LTL shipments on lanes where the LTL cost is running above that lane's FTL average, which is a mode question the scorecard above will not catch.

For the truckload equivalent of this template, see What Is a Carrier Scorecard and Carrier Scorecard Software.