Resource costing is broken. Fixed costing makes it difficult to see how much your multi-trip operations are actually costing. A lot of TMS calculate using the wrong unit of measurement, running costs on a trip level. Whereas, it’s often more accurate for costings to sit on a day or week level.
We take a look at resource costing for multi-trip operations across owned fleet and contract logistics – and how a few small changes could make a big difference.
Two models, one problem
Let’s take a look at how resource costing plays out when the fleet is your own and when you’re renting drivers and vehicles – and where the inaccuracies tend to creep in.
For an owned fleet, your vehicle and driver may be doing multiple trips in a day at a day rate of £475. You want this cost to be shown and reported as just the £475 daily rate, however, we see this amount being applied to each trip independently. So, for three trips, what should be just £475 is now showing at £1,425 – triple the amount it should be.
Similarly, with contract logistics, vehicle+driver combinations are rented at a fixed weekly rent. This means that regardless of how many trips you run with the rented resource, the contracted cost will remain the same and is completely independent of the output.
Why this is harder than it looks
It may seem like a simple shift to move from per trip costing to a daily or weekly rate. But, the truth is, most TMS were just not designed with these models in mind. This means that to get live figures and costs, operators often have to use unwieldy workarounds or manually add and calculate in a spreadsheet.
Own fleet is slightly simpler to manage – the day or week rate can be split equally across the trips that share the same resource in that period.
Contract logistics is more complex, costs are independent of trips entirely, and can vary based on hours worked across the week. But even here, moving away from per-trip calculation is a step in the right direction.
Why it matters more than ever
With margins being squeezed ever tighter by rising fleet, fuel, and compliance cost, you need accurate data in real-time to see where you actually stand. Finance and ops teams need real-time P&L visibility – not inflated or misattributed costs.
If you don’t have the right pricing data, you’re making decisions based on inaccurate costs, with the potential to impact pricing decisions, contract renewals, or wider commercial strategy.
What Qargo now supports
Qargo’s new Consolidate setting on cost rate cards addresses the own fleet multi-trip problem directly: a fixed day or week rate is split equally across all trips sharing the same resource in the same period.
Operators have a choice of four grouping options — same start date, same end date, same start week, same end week — which cover the most common contract structures you have for your own fleet.
It works for both own fleet and subcontractor cost cards — and since the same logic applies to your revenue rates too, costs and revenues are now calculated consistently. The result: a driver on a £475/day rate completing 3 trips will show £158.33 per trip, with the day total correctly summing back to £475.
What this unlocks for operators
Ultimately, we want you to have confidence in your costing, so that you can make decisions based on accurate and real-time information. As an operator, your resource costs can now reflect what you actually contracted (not a multiple of it) and you can see (and trust) per-trip and per-day P&L figures all in one place.
On the sub-contractor side, you’ll be able to reconcile more effectively and with less chance of manual month-end corrections. You’ll also have more insight and authority to price competitively – if you’ve got the full picture of per-trip costs, you can quote and negotiate accordingly.
The bottom line of your bottom line
Resource costing has always been complicated – but it shouldn’t be inaccurate. When your TMS multiplies a fixed daily rate across every trip, whether that’s your own fleet or a contracted vehicle and driver combination, you end up with numbers you can’t trust.
The Consolidate setting is a step toward fixing that. Real-time P&L you can stand behind, costs that reflect your actual contracts, and one less reason to reach for the spreadsheet at month-end.
If your costing doesn’t reflect how your operation is actually structured, it’s worth asking what else you might be getting wrong – and what it’s costing you.
Speak to the team today to find out how we can help you handle your resource costings more accurately.
