
Global FMCG company reaches 99% OTIF and cuts detention charges with CubeSite
A unified view of shipment movement helped the team catch delivery risks earlier, reduce detention charges and reach 99% on-time, in-full performance.
Partner
Global FMCG company
Industry
Consumer goods
Footprint
PTL, FTL & containers
Products
Tracking, exceptions, analytics
The freight network was moving. The information was not.
The company managed thousands of part-truckload (PTL) and full-truckload (FTL) shipments alongside approximately 500 container moves every month. Each movement generated updates, but those updates lived across ERP records, transport systems, carrier portals, GPS feeds and inboxes. The team had plenty of data and no single view of which deliveries were on course, which were at risk and which waiting loads were about to incur a charge.
Finding one shipment meant checking several systems
ERP records, carrier portals, emails and calls each held a different part of the journey. To understand a single truck or container, the team had to collect and reconcile updates by hand. At this volume, status-chasing competed with the work that mattered most: acting on delays. A location update alone did not explain whether the delivery could still meet its commitment or whether the load needed intervention.
Detention became visible after the cost had accrued
Trucks and containers waited at ports, warehouses and customer sites beyond the permitted free time. The team often learned about the resulting charge when the invoice arrived. By then, the opportunity to chase a pickup, clear a load or change the receiving plan had passed. Preventing the charge required a view of elapsed dwell time and the applicable free-time allowance before the threshold was crossed.
Late deliveries were visible. Their causes were not.
Late and partial deliveries affected on-time, in-full performance with key customers. Without consistent shipment-level data, the team could not easily separate a recurring carrier problem from a lane-specific or site-specific delay. They needed to recover the delivery at risk today and understand the pattern behind repeated failures. Fragmented status updates made both jobs harder.
The solution
One connected freight record. An earlier opportunity to act.
CubeSite connected shipment and container data from the systems and carriers the team already used. It joined those updates into one live record per movement, sitting above the existing ERP and TMS rather than replacing them. The team could move from collecting status information to identifying the loads that needed attention.
Step 1
Connect the systems behind each movement
ERP, TMS, carrier APIs, GPS and telematics, and email or EDI updates fed one tracking pipeline across PTL, FTL and container movements. Instead of treating each source as a separate view, CubeSite brought the movement into a common freight record. The team could understand the latest status in the context of the shipment, rather than switching tools to reconstruct its journey.
Step 2
Track delivery risk and the cost of waiting
Each shipment and container received a live status. Dwell time was measured against the allowed free time, while ETA deviations were flagged against the delivery commitment. A delayed truck and a container approaching its free-time limit require different responses. Connecting the status with the relevant threshold made the risk behind the update visible.
Step 3
Focus attention while intervention can still help
Alerts surfaced before free time ran out or a delivery ETA slipped beyond its window. At-risk deliveries were ranked by customer impact, so the team could focus on the loads where intervention mattered most. Depending on the exception, the response could be to chase a pickup, clear a waiting load or reschedule before detention started. Visibility became a prompt for action, not another report to check.
One view across every mode
PTL + FTL
Part- and full-truckload movements
1,000s tracked
Containers
Container movements
~500 / month
How detention prevention works
Illustrative workflowLoad arrives at a waiting point
Applicable free-time allowance is attached to the movement
Dwell time is monitored
Elapsed waiting time is compared with the allowed free time
Free-time risk is flagged
The team receives an alert while intervention is still possible
Team arranges the next move
Illustrative response: chase pickup, clear the load or reschedule
Outcome is recorded
The actual delivery and detention outcome feeds the freight record
The results
99% OTIF, with fewer avoidable detention charges.
Connecting movement data changed when the team could respond. Instead of waiting for invoices and customer complaints to reveal a problem, they could see the operational risk earlier and act on its cause. The result: 99% OTIF and fewer detention charges across the tracked freight operation.
Shipment level
On-time, in-full performance reached 99%.
ETA deviations across PTL and FTL shipments became visible as they appeared, and at-risk deliveries were ranked by customer impact. This gave the team an opportunity to intervene before a missed delivery window. OTIF reached 99%, connecting the tracking workflow to a business outcome that mattered to customers: receiving the expected order when it was promised.
Container and truck level
Detention prevention started before the invoice.
Dwell-time monitoring put the free-time limit beside the movement record. Early alerts gave the team an opportunity to clear loads, chase pickups or adjust the receiving plan before waiting became chargeable. Detention charges fell. Unlike reviewing a charge after it appeared, this workflow addressed the delay that created the cost in the first place.
Carrier level
Carrier negotiations ran on facts, not gut feel.
CubeSite showed on-time, in-full performance by carrier and route. The team could see which carriers were reliable and where delays kept happening. That gave them actual delivery data for carrier reviews and decisions about which carriers should handle future shipments.
Network level
Every delay had a cost attached.
The freight record tied each delivery risk to its financial impact. Logistics could see where trucks were waiting and act; finance could see exactly where detention charges were coming from. Thousands of truckload shipments and around 500 container moves a month sat in one view, above the systems the company already ran.
CubeSite gave the team one live view of a high-volume, multi-mode freight operation. The result was 99% OTIF and reduced detention charges, with clearer carrier-performance data behind both outcomes. The value came from connecting information that had previously been scattered: the shipment, its latest status, its delivery commitment and the cost of waiting. That is where operational reliability meets financial accuracy. The same foundation gives the team a basis for examining recurring delays by carrier, lane and site, rather than starting from disconnected updates each time.
From chasing status to controlling the next move.
See which delays will affect your customers or your costs.
A 30-minute walkthrough tailored to your carriers and lanes. See how CubeSite connects PTL, FTL and container movements, surfaces delivery and detention risks, and gives your team an earlier opportunity to act.
Related resources

Customer story
How a Leading Pharmaceutical Manufacturer Saved $50K in Freight Costs with CubeSite
Read
Blog
The Complete Guide to Freight Invoice Errors: Where Your Shipping Budget Quietly Leaks
ReadBlog
Cubesite