Loss-making lanes: profitable on paper, −3.8% real
Fleet P&L’s aggregate positive margin usually feels reassuring. But hidden inside that positive figure are subsidised loss-making lanes. Konya–Prague looks profitable on paper; add per-trip costs and the margin reads −3.8%.
The reason is structural: when total margin is positive, no one breaks down lanes; one subsidises another. The CFO panel shows a single number — “fleet margin positive” — but underneath are lanes that should already be closed.
Why manual breakdown fails
Two structural reasons:
- Per-trip costing is unfeasible manually. Fuel, driver, AETR hours, tolls, detention — tying each to a trip record by hand takes days.
- Cost lines live in different systems. Fuel sits with the card provider, driver hours in HR, tolls in the HGS system, detention in a WhatsApp group.
Per-trip P&L: 12 cost categories
Lognari combines 12 standard cost categories per trip:
| Category | Source | Automatic? |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Fuel | OBD2 + card transaction | ✅ |
| 2. Driver hours | Tachograph + HR rate table | ✅ |
| 3. Driver per-diem/overtime | HR | ✅ |
| 4. Toll | HGS/EU toll bill | ✅ |
| 5. Detention | Geofence | ✅ |
| 6. Demurrage | Container tracking | ✅ |
| 7. Ferry | TMS booking | ✅ |
| 8. Customs | Customs forms | ⚠️ Semi-manual |
| 9. Casco | Monthly amortise | ✅ |
| 10. Z-insurance | Monthly amortise | ✅ |
| 11. Depot overhead | Monthly allocation | ✅ |
| 12. Office fixed | 3–5% of trip revenue | ✅ |
Trip revenue – 12 costs = trip margin. Accumulated by lane and customer.
Lane ranking — example
| Lane | Monthly trips | Avg revenue | Avg cost | Margin | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TR→DE independent | 42 | €4,800 | €3,900 | +18.7% | Stable |
| TR→PL electronics | 18 | €5,200 | €5,080 | +2.3% | Falling |
| TR→NL food return | 12 | €4,100 | €4,260 | −3.9% | 6-month streak |
| TR→DE spare-parts | 8 | €3,800 | €3,950 | −4.0% | 4-month streak |
| Intra-EU spot | 22 | €1,800 | €1,870 | −3.9% | Stable |
Colour coding auto-flags negative trends in the ops-centre panel. 90-day consecutive negative triggers a review alert.
Impact by fleet size
| Fleet | Loss-making lane detection | Annual net margin improvement |
|---|---|---|
| 100 trucks | 5-7 lanes → 2 close + 3 repriced | €180,000 |
| 300 trucks | 15-25 lanes → 6 lane actions | €620,000 (+2.8% margin) |
| 1,000 trucks | 50+ lane audit → customer segmentation | €1.8M+ + working-capital release |
Pilot — 140-truck general-cargo fleet
At pilot start, the P&L panel flagged 22 lanes with negative margin. Detail review: 4 lanes (TR→PL electronics, TR→DE spare-parts express, TR→NL food return, intra-EU spot) had been losing money for 18 months continuously.
Action:
- 3 lanes: repriced with customers (avg +14% increase accepted)
- 1 lane: closed entirely, capacity reallocated to higher-margin lanes
Result (12 months later):
- Annual net margin +3.2% (€485,000)
- 2 customers signed long-term stable contracts
- 11 drivers + 8 trucks moved to higher-margin lanes
Side effect: customer segmentation
Lognari produces a “customer profit-margin matrix”: customer × last-12-months trips × average margin × volume. Four quadrants:
- High margin + high volume: strategic customer, protect
- High margin + low volume: growth opportunity
- Low margin + high volume: reprice
- Low margin + low volume: sensible exit
Three pilot fleets used this matrix to trigger a full portfolio review — net €600K–€1.2M annual margin increase.
What’s next
If your fleet is 100+ trucks and you only look at aggregate margin rather than per-trip P&L, there’s a 95%+ chance of 5-7 loss-making lanes hiding inside. A 30-day pilot makes that concrete.
Reach out via the contact section — reply within one business day.
Statistics referenced from KPMG European Fleet Survey 2025 + Lognari pilot data. The 12 cost categories follow EU accounting standard IFRS 15 + accepted logistics-industry templates.
