Port, Freight & Logistics

Find the profit your logistics business is leaking.

Freight margins are thin, so small misses add up fast: accessorials that never get billed, empty miles, slow proof-of-delivery paperwork and carrier invoices nobody audits. The diagnostic shows which ones are costing you the most.

Start the free diagnostic About 12 minutes (or a 4-minute Quick Check) · Results right away · Free

Built for trucking, freight, port and 3PL operators

The four leaks we see most in port, freight & logistics

The logistics diagnostic adds these industry questions to the core assessment, prices each one against your numbers, and ranks them by what they're worth to fix.

Pricing & Margin

Unbilled accessorials

We ask: Are detention, demurrage, layover, and lumper charges billed every time?

A first fix: Audit the last 60 days of shipments for unbilled accessorials.

Purchasing & Supply

Empty miles / fuel waste

We ask: Do you track empty miles and fuel per mile?

A first fix: Report empty-mile % and fuel cost per mile by lane weekly.

Cash Flow & Collections

POD-to-invoice lag

We ask: How long from proof of delivery to invoice?

A first fix: Invoice automatically on POD capture.

Purchasing & Supply

Carrier invoice errors

We ask: Are carrier bills audited against rate confirmations?

A first fix: Audit every carrier bill against the rate confirmation before payment.

Finance + operations

Two sides of the same problem.

Freight margins are thin, so a few cents per mile decide the year. Blue Water works on both sides: a fractional CFO who keeps your numbers honest, and an operations team that fixes what those numbers reveal.

Finance · Fractional CFO

What your CFO watches in logistics

Cost per mile and per loadFuel, driver pay, maintenance and insurance broken down to the lane and the load.
Collections and factoringDays to get paid, and whether factoring is helping cash or quietly eating margin.
Equipment financingLease, buy or finance decisions on trucks and trailers, timed to your cash.

Operations · Friction & systems

What operations fixes

The four leaks above are where the numbers usually point. Once the monthly review shows which one is costing you most, we fix it at the source: a clear procedure your team follows, a cleaner workflow, and the software you already use connected so nothing gets re-keyed or lost.

Then we track the result in your next month's numbers, so you can see what the fix was worth.

How the two sides work together

The diagnostic scores both sides. You'll see your financial control and operations scores, and which to fix first.

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Plus the six areas every business is scored on

Every diagnostic scores the same six areas, so you can see where logistics problems sit next to everyday ones.

Cash Flow & CollectionsHow fast you bill and collect, and how much cash is tied up waiting.
Pricing & MarginWhether your prices and job costs keep up with what the work really takes.
Labor & ProductivityOvertime, idle time and the hours that never turn into revenue.
Purchasing & SupplyWhat you buy, what you waste and what walks out the door.
Sales & Lead FlowHow many inquiries turn into paying work, and how many slip away.
Financial ControlWhether your books are current, reconciled and actually used to run the business.

The logistics benchmarks we compare you to

If you leave a figure blank, the diagnostic estimates it from these typical values for port, freight & logistics. Your results show which numbers came from you and which are estimates. In a paid audit, we replace every estimate with your real books.

Gross margin: 18%
Payroll share of revenue: 35%
Materials / supplies share: 30%
Days to get paid (target): 40

Planning assumptions used by our model, not guarantees. See the earnings disclaimer.

Free Friction Diagnostic

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Separate scores for financial control and operations
Your estimated annual profit leak, area by area
A recommended next step (finance, operations or both) based on your answers
A 30-day action plan you can start on today

Your answers go only to Blue Water. We never sell them.

Friction Diagnostic