Your freight bill looks normal. Per carton?
Good morning, there. Last week I promised you the freight bill. Here it is, per carton.
THE MOVE
Problem: the transporter's bill comes, the total looks about right, accounts pays it. Nobody divides it by the cartons that went. ₹1 or ₹2 a carton hides inside a bigger month, and on a delivered quote it is your margin.
Move: paste six months of bills and cartons per route into the sheet or your AI assistant. Out comes ₹ per carton by route by month, and the drift in rupees.
Takes: 30 minutes. Bills and the dispatch register. Nothing new.
Issue 22 · 27 Oct 2026 · 3 min read · run in 30
ONE FIELD NOTE
An example plant, constructed figures, not a client.
₹18 a carton in April. ₹19.68 in September. The monthly total never looked wrong.
The case: a Nashik plant ships brackets to Pune, one transporter, one monthly bill. April: ₹21,240. September: ₹26,568. More cartons went, so the bigger bill looked like a bigger month.
The details:
Per carton it crept every month: 18.00, 18.32, 18.65, 18.99, 19.33, 19.68. No revision letter. About 1.8% a month.
September against April: ₹1.68 a carton on 1,350 cartons, ₹2,268 that month alone.
Why it matters: the national trunk routes did the same this year: 0 to 1.3% in September, 4% to 13% on the year. A creep that small shows only per carton, against a fixed first month.
Not for you if you sell ex-works and never see a freight bill. For you if you quote delivered or pay for outbound.
FIELD TOOL · STEP BY STEP
The Freight-per-Carton Tracker
30 minutes · six months of bills and the dispatch register · one dated line
A month with cartons but no bill, or a bill with no cartons, is GAP and stays out of every total. Example rows, not a client.
Six months of transporter bills or LR copies: date, bill number, route, amount. Photos work.
Cartons per route per month from the dispatch register. Kilos, if you ship by weight.
Paste both into the sheet or the prompt below. Set your own threshold; 5% is a start, not a benchmark.
Put the dated line in front of the transporter on Monday.
Pro tip: a bill with no matching cartons comes back GAP, out of every total. Close it before you argue the rate.
PROMPT STATION
The freight-per-carton prompt
Paste your two records between the tags, or open it already loaded.
You are the freight clerk for a small factory. Work only from the two records below.
<bills>
[paste six months of transporter bills or LR copies: date, bill or LR number, route, amount in ₹]
</bills>
<dispatch>
[paste cartons dispatched per route per month from the dispatch register]
</dispatch>
Threshold: [type a % — e.g. 5]
Read in this order:
1. For each route and month, total freight from <bills> and cartons from <dispatch>.
2. ₹ per carton = freight ÷ cartons. Show the change from the first month in %.
3. Drift this month = (this month's ₹ per carton − first month's ₹ per carton) × this month's cartons.
4. A month with cartons but no bill, or a bill with no cartons, is GAP. List it. Leave it out of every total.
5. Flag any route-month above the threshold.
Give me one table per route (month, cartons, freight ₹, ₹ per carton, change %, flag) and the GAP list. Finish with exactly one line in this shape and nothing after it:
Freight check, [month]: [N] routes, ₹[X] per carton on [route] now against ₹[Y] in [first month], drift ₹[Z] this month. [G] gaps.Or open it in ChatGPT. Tested in Claude on a made-up six-month set: the dispatch with no bill came back GAP; the 9.3% drift showed. Claude shows a caution banner for linked prompts; press send.
THE ONE CLICK
The Freight-per-Carton Tracker sheet
Make a copy. Bills on one tab, cartons on the other. The third tab divides, flags months above your threshold, draws the chart and writes the dated line.
Six months ago: ₹___ per carton.
Today: ₹___ per carton.
THIS WEEK'S NUMBER
₹1,52,000
One round trip, Bengaluru to Mumbai and back, 18-tonne payload, September 2026. Up 11% on a year ago (₹1,37,000), only 1.3% on August. Every trunk route in the table is 4% to 13% dearer than last September; none moved over 1.3% in the month.
Not known: what part-load freight from Nashik or Pune did this year. Nobody publishes it. Your bills are the number.
ONE QUESTION
Reply with one number: your ₹ per carton on your busiest route, now and six months ago. Or reply "got it", so next Tuesday lands in your Primary tab.
Coming next Tuesday: Warehousing. Stores say we have it. The line says we do not.
P.S. On 3 October bulk diesel rose ₹14.60 a litre; pump diesel did not move. Before you accept a rate revision, ask your transporter which one he buys. This check tells you what you were paying before he asked.
Until next Tuesday,
Sachin
Founder, Scalatris LLP · scalatris.com
I read every reply.
Forward this: to whoever approves the transporter's bill.
SOURCES
1. Shriram Finance, Shriram Mobility Bulletin, October 2026 edition, page 2, "Round trip rentals for 18 ton pay load".
2. The Times of India, "Bulk diesel price up Rs 14.6/litre as crude surge squeezes oil cos' margins", 3 October 2026.
3. The field note and the process-flow rows are a constructed example, not a client.