Why improving on-time performance alone isn’t enough to reduce OTIF fees
When attempting to achieve a 98% OTIF delivery target across a network of 290 active lanes, the conventional approach looks obvious: find the lanes with the lowest on-time performance and fix those first.
However, at the network scale TreeHouse Foods was operating, this conventional approach was falling short. Service improved on the weakest lanes, but OTIF fines kept arriving well above what the team expected.
How lane-level analytics show where OTIF delivery penalties really come from
E2open has provided managed transportation services for TreeHouse Foods as an extension of its logistics team for more than 15 years. That trust unlocked the missing input: TreeHouse Foods shared its retailer chargeback files, which is data many shippers are reluctant to share with a TMS provider.
Once loaded into e2open's advanced reporting, the file attached a dollar figure to every carrier, lane, and delivery being charged. Weighing financial exposure against on-time delivery metrics helped reduce OTIF penalties by letting the LaaS team:
Rank lanes by highest product value, not by service performance
Concentrate daily ownership on the highest-value, highest-charge lanes and ensure they deliver on time
Automate the reporting process for more efficient monitoring and decision-making
Targeting the costliest lanes produced reductions almost immediately. Within the first 12 months, the strategy helped the company avoid $400,000 of OTIF charges.
How managed transportation services improved on-time delivery performance
A lane prioritization strategy only works when someone owns the lanes every day. Logistics as a Service pairs the e2open TMS with transportation experts who manage planning, execution, and reporting alongside the shipper's own team, so analytics turn into action on the loads that matter most for on-time delivery performance.
For food and beverage manufacturers under retailer compliance pressure, the outcomes compound. Partnering with LaaS, TreeHouse Foods has experienced these outcomes:
$400,000 in avoided OTIF charges in the first 12 months
A full subsequent year with no OTIF fines assessed
Automatic on-time performance reporting for retail customers
Benchmarking against transportation performance and industry best practices
A repeatable model that scales to other large retail customers
Retailer scorecards will keep tightening. Companies that can see cost and service in the same view get to decide where to spend their attention, rather than paying to find out.
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Frequently asked questions
What is lane-level analytics in transportation?
Lane-level analytics evaluate cost, service, carrier performance, and penalty exposure for each individual origin-destination lane instead of relying only on a network average. This visibility helps transportation teams identify which lanes drive OTIF delivery charges and prioritize corrective action.
What are managed transportation services?
Managed transportation services combine transportation management technology with logistics experts who plan, execute, and report on freight on the shipper's behalf. E2open Logistics as a Service delivers this model, helping shippers apply analytics, benchmarking, and daily execution support to improve OTIF delivery performance.
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