Ask most dealers how they measure their transport program and the answer is one number: price per move. That number tells you almost nothing about whether the program is actually working. The real cost of vehicle logistics hides in the metrics nobody tracks — and you cannot manage what you don't measure.
Here is the scorecard worth building.
All-in cost per unit moved. Not the headline quote — the true cost, including storage fees from late pickups, re-dispatch charges when a carrier falls through, and any reconditioning from transit damage. A "cheap" lane that triggers two days of storage isn't cheap.
Days-to-frontline (transport dwell). How long from purchase or pickup to the unit being retail-ready on your lot? Every day in transit dwell is a day the vehicle isn't earning, and aging starts the clock the moment you buy.
Carrier assignment time. How fast does a booked load actually get a carrier assigned? If it's measured in days, your timelines are exposed. A 24-hour assignment standard is the benchmark.
On-time pickup and delivery rate. The percentage of moves that hit their window. This is the metric your sold-customer deliveries and dealer trades live or die on.
Damage and claim rate. Claims per hundred units, and how fast they resolve. A low rate reflects real carrier vetting; a slow resolution reflects a partner who disappears when something goes wrong.
Quote-to-invoice variance. The share of moves where the price you were quoted is the price you paid. If quotes routinely change at delivery, your budgeting is fiction.
Once you baseline these, two things happen. You can see which lanes and partners are actually performing, and you can hold logistics to a standard instead of hoping it works out.
This is also where a fixed-price, accountable model proves itself on paper. With SendMyRide, quote-to-invoice variance is zero by design — the price is locked at booking. Carrier assignment runs on a 24-hour standard, every move carries a documented condition report so claim data is clean, and a dedicated account manager owns your on-time performance rather than passing it to a queue. The numbers are built to be measured.
A transport scorecard turns logistics from a line item you tolerate into a lever you manage. Start tracking these six metrics for one quarter — you'll quickly see where the margin has been leaking.