{"id":1848,"date":"2026-04-27T20:00:57","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T19:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/heylog.com\/?p=1848"},"modified":"2026-05-19T09:24:01","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T08:24:01","slug":"fca-inbound-control-hauliers-never-hired","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/heylog.com\/en\/fca-inbound-control-hauliers-never-hired\/","title":{"rendered":"FCA Inbound: Why You Cannot Control Hauliers You Never Hired"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>\n.heylog-blog-content { max-width: 720px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; font-size: 1.0625rem; line-height: 1.85; color: #1f2937; letter-spacing: 0.01em; }\n.heylog-blog-content > * + * { margin-top: 0; }\n.heylog-blog-content p { margin: 0 0 1.4rem; line-height: 1.75; }\n.heylog-blog-content h2 { margin: 3rem 0 1rem; font-size: 1.65rem; line-height: 1.3; font-weight: 700; }\n.heylog-blog-content h3 { margin: 2.25rem 0 0.75rem; font-size: 1.3rem; line-height: 1.35; font-weight: 600; }\n.heylog-blog-content h2:first-child, .heylog-blog-content h3:first-child { margin-top: 1rem; }\n.heylog-blog-content ul, .heylog-blog-content ol { margin: 0 0 1.6rem 0; padding-left: 1.4rem; }\n.heylog-blog-content li { margin: 0 0 0.65rem; line-height: 1.65; }\n.heylog-blog-content li > p { margin: 0 0 0.5rem; }\n.heylog-blog-content blockquote { margin: 1.75rem 0; padding: 0.85rem 1.25rem; border-left: 4px solid #9ca3af; background: #f9fafb; font-style: italic; color: #374151; }\n.heylog-blog-content hr { margin: 2.5rem 0; border: 0; border-top: 1px solid #e5e7eb; }\n.heylog-blog-content figure { margin: 2rem auto; text-align: center; }\n.heylog-blog-content figure img { max-width: 100%; height: auto; display: block; margin: 0 auto; }\n.heylog-blog-content figcaption { font-size: 0.875rem; color: #6b7280; text-align: center; margin-top: 0.5rem; line-height: 1.5; }\n.heylog-blog-content strong { font-weight: 600; color: #111827; }\n.heylog-blog-content a { color: #2563eb; text-decoration: underline; }\n<\/style>\n<div class=\"heylog-blog-content\" style=\"max-width:720px;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.85;color:#1f2937;letter-spacing:0.01em;\">\n<figure style=\"margin:2rem auto;text-align:center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/heylog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/post-157-1777314151016.png\" alt=\"FCA Inbound: Why You Cannot Control Hauliers You Never Hired\" \/ style=\"max-width:100%;height:auto;display:block;margin:0 auto;\" style=\"max-width:100%;height:auto;display:block;margin:0 auto;\"><\/figure>\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.4rem;line-height:1.85;font-size:1.0625rem;color:#1f2937;\">Your time-window portal is running. Your rules are on the website. And yet every Tuesday, three lorries show up simultaneously\u2014unannounced, without a slot, the driver barely signalling with a hand wave. Nobody ever instructed this haulier. You couldn&#8217;t have.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.4rem;line-height:1.85;font-size:1.0625rem;color:#1f2937;\">This isn&#8217;t a failure of your processes. It&#8217;s a structural feature of FCA inbound\u2014and it affects a large proportion of your goods deliveries.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"margin:3rem 0 1rem;font-size:1.65rem;line-height:1.3;font-weight:700;color:#111827;\">FCA means: The supplier chooses. You wait.<\/h2>\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.4rem;line-height:1.85;font-size:1.0625rem;color:#1f2937;\"><strong style=\"font-weight:600;color:#111827;\">FCA<\/strong> stands for &#8220;Free Carrier&#8221;. In practice, it means: your supplier hands the goods to a haulier of their choice, at a location of their choice. From that point on, they bear neither cost nor risk. The instruction of the haulier\u2014when, with whom, on what terms\u2014lies entirely with the supplier.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.4rem;line-height:1.85;font-size:1.0625rem;color:#1f2937;\">What this means for your goods-in: The haulier who shows up at your gate on Tuesday morning has no contract with you. He has no incentive to use your portal. He doesn&#8217;t know your slot rules\u2014and if he does, he&#8217;s not obliged to follow them, because you have no leverage over him. You hold no client status towards him.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.4rem;line-height:1.85;font-size:1.0625rem;color:#1f2937;\">Estimates from the DACH supply chain suggest that <strong style=\"font-weight:600;color:#111827;\">40 to 70% of all inbound deliveries<\/strong> are handled under FCA terms. In manufacturing plants with many suppliers\u2014mechanical engineering, chemicals, packaging, consumer goods\u2014this proportion is particularly high.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"margin:2rem auto;text-align:center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/heylog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/post-106-1776944128054-11.png\" alt=\"40\u201370% of inbound runs under FCA \u2013 so what?\" \/ style=\"max-width:100%;height:auto;display:block;margin:0 auto;\" style=\"max-width:100%;height:auto;display:block;margin:0 auto;\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:0.875rem;color:#6b7280;text-align:center;margin-top:0.5rem;line-height:1.5;\">When the supplier selects the haulier, you lose all direct leverage over registration and arrival time.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2 style=\"margin:3rem 0 1rem;font-size:1.65rem;line-height:1.3;font-weight:700;color:#111827;\">The time-window paradox<\/h2>\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.4rem;line-height:1.85;font-size:1.0625rem;color:#1f2937;\">Time-window portals rest on a simple assumption: you have a contractual relationship with the haulier\u2014or at least one that creates binding obligation. The haulier books because he must. He complies because deviation has consequences.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.4rem;line-height:1.85;font-size:1.0625rem;color:#1f2937;\">With FCA inbound, this assumption doesn&#8217;t hold.<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"margin:1.75rem 0;padding:0.85rem 1.25rem;border-left:4px solid #9ca3af;background:#f9fafb;font-style:italic;color:#374151;\">\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.4rem;line-height:1.85;font-size:1.0625rem;color:#1f2937;\">&#8220;We&#8217;ve introduced portal compliance, but a third of deliveries still arrive without a booking. We don&#8217;t even know which haulier it is until the driver shows up at the gate.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.4rem;line-height:1.85;font-size:1.0625rem;color:#1f2937;\">That sentence is no isolated case. It describes the core problem: you cannot force compliance from hauliers you never hired. And even if the supplier were theoretically responsible for using your haulier pool\u2014in practice, they instruct the one they already work with.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.4rem;line-height:1.85;font-size:1.0625rem;color:#1f2937;\">The portal sits empty. The lorries arrive anyway.<\/p>\n<hr style=\"margin:2.5rem 0;border:0;border-top:1px solid #e5e7eb;\">\n<h2 style=\"margin:3rem 0 1rem;font-size:1.65rem;line-height:1.3;font-weight:700;color:#111827;\">What the subcontracting chain has to do with it<\/h2>\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.4rem;line-height:1.85;font-size:1.0625rem;color:#1f2937;\">The FCA problem is amplified by a second effect, rarely made explicit: the subcontracting chain.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.4rem;line-height:1.85;font-size:1.0625rem;color:#1f2937;\">The supplier instructs a haulier. That haulier passes the job to a regional carrier. The regional carrier operates with a Polish, Romanian or Bulgarian sub-driver encountering this customer for the first time. The driver has no instruction about your slot system. He hasn&#8217;t installed any app. He&#8217;s not even sure he&#8217;s pulling up at the right dock.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.4rem;line-height:1.85;font-size:1.0625rem;color:#1f2937;\">97% of HGV drivers own a personal smartphone. But that&#8217;s no help if nobody knows which channel to reach them through before the haul\u2014and if the channel you use (the portal) isn&#8217;t bookable for these drivers because their client is not you.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.4rem;line-height:1.85;font-size:1.0625rem;color:#1f2937;\">The information stays stuck at the top of the chain. Nothing reaches the gate below.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"margin:2rem auto;text-align:center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/heylog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/post-106-1776944128054-10.png\" alt=\"The FCA gap: Why no time-window portal works\u2014and what does instead\" \/ style=\"max-width:100%;height:auto;display:block;margin:0 auto;\" style=\"max-width:100%;height:auto;display:block;margin:0 auto;\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:0.875rem;color:#6b7280;text-align:center;margin-top:0.5rem;line-height:1.5;\">Between slot booking and actual arrival lies an information gap that no portal alone can close.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2 style=\"margin:3rem 0 1rem;font-size:1.65rem;line-height:1.3;font-weight:700;color:#111827;\">The hidden costs of this gap<\/h2>\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.4rem;line-height:1.85;font-size:1.0625rem;color:#1f2937;\">Because the problem is structural, costs are spread across many cost centres\u2014and are therefore rarely visible as a coherent problem.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.4rem;line-height:1.85;font-size:1.0625rem;color:#1f2937;\">Consider a medium-sized plant with 30 inbound deliveries daily, 50% of which are FCA. That&#8217;s 15 deliveries with no reliable ETA. If on average 4 arrive daily outside the planned time window, and each generates 18 minutes of coordination effort\u2014search calls, dock rescheduling, congestion clarification\u2014the calculation runs as follows:<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.4rem;line-height:1.85;font-size:1.0625rem;color:#1f2937;\"><strong style=\"font-weight:600;color:#111827;\">4 deliveries \u00d7 18 min \u00d7 250 working days = 30,000 minutes per year = 500 hours<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.4rem;line-height:1.85;font-size:1.0625rem;color:#1f2937;\">At a disposition hourly rate of \u20ac35\/h, that&#8217;s <strong style=\"font-weight:600;color:#111827;\">roughly \u20ac17,500 in pure coordination overhead<\/strong>\u2014not including dwell time, not including knock-on costs from dock congestion, not including the overtime that accrues when the morning peak escalates.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.4rem;line-height:1.85;font-size:1.0625rem;color:#1f2937;\">This figure doesn&#8217;t sit as a visible cost centre on its own. It&#8217;s distributed across personnel time, production interruptions, forklift setup costs for a different job that was already scheduled.<\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin:0 0 1.6rem 0;padding-left:1.4rem;\">\n<li style=\"margin:0 0 0.65rem;line-height:1.75;font-size:1.0625rem;color:#1f2937;\">Dwell time cost of a waiting lorry: industry standard \u20ac40\u201380\/h<\/li>\n<li style=\"margin:0 0 0.65rem;line-height:1.75;font-size:1.0625rem;color:#1f2937;\">Morning peak: around 40% of all daily supplies arrive in the first 90 minutes after plant opening\u2014precisely when every unplanned delivery is most expensive<\/li>\n<li style=\"margin:0 0 0.65rem;line-height:1.75;font-size:1.0625rem;color:#1f2937;\">Pre-advice: in German plants, up to 80% of advance notifications still run via Excel or email\u2014with the corresponding processing effort before a resource can even be scheduled<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.4rem;line-height:1.85;font-size:1.0625rem;color:#1f2937;\">What you probably haven&#8217;t captured: how many of your daily inbound deliveries are FCA deliveries without advance notice. Most plants, when they first evaluate this, find the answer uncomfortably surprising.<\/p>\n<hr style=\"margin:2.5rem 0;border:0;border-top:1px solid #e5e7eb;\">\n<h2 style=\"margin:3rem 0 1rem;font-size:1.65rem;line-height:1.3;font-weight:700;color:#111827;\">Slot \u2260 arrival. But you already know that.<\/h2>\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.4rem;line-height:1.85;font-size:1.0625rem;color:#1f2937;\">The curious thing about this problem is that it&#8217;s actually no secret. Most logistics directors know that a booked slot is no arrival guarantee. They know the leverage is missing with FCA inbound. And they know the driver at the gate has the latest information\u2014but is usually the first person you can reach.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.4rem;line-height:1.85;font-size:1.0625rem;color:#1f2937;\">What&#8217;s missing is not knowledge. What&#8217;s missing is a channel.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.4rem;line-height:1.85;font-size:1.0625rem;color:#1f2937;\">Not a channel to the haulier\u2014with FCA inbound, he doesn&#8217;t belong to you. But a channel directly to the driver: before departure, not at the gate.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.4rem;line-height:1.85;font-size:1.0625rem;color:#1f2937;\">97% of drivers own a smartphone. Most use WhatsApp daily. The channel exists\u2014it&#8217;s just rarely actively engaged before the lorry is already heading for your plant.<\/p>\n<hr style=\"margin:2.5rem 0;border:0;border-top:1px solid #e5e7eb;\">\n<h2 style=\"margin:3rem 0 1rem;font-size:1.65rem;line-height:1.3;font-weight:700;color:#111827;\">What can change\u2014and what cannot<\/h2>\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.4rem;line-height:1.85;font-size:1.0625rem;color:#1f2937;\">One thing should be clear: no system in the world fully solves the FCA structural problem. As long as the supplier selects the haulier, you have no contractual obligation towards the carrier. That&#8217;s a trade term, not a process failure.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.4rem;line-height:1.85;font-size:1.0625rem;color:#1f2937;\">What can change is the <strong style=\"font-weight:600;color:#111827;\">information flow in the final 12 to 24 hours before delivery<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.4rem;line-height:1.85;font-size:1.0625rem;color:#1f2937;\">Heylog automatically sends the driver a WhatsApp before he departs. He registers and confirms his ETA. You see it in your dashboard\u2014no call, no app, no portal the driver would have needed to know about. Contact runs directly with the driver, regardless of which haulier hired him.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.4rem;line-height:1.85;font-size:1.0625rem;color:#1f2937;\">This changes nothing about the contractual FCA structure. But it closes the information gap in the area that&#8217;s actually manageable: what happens between job handover and the plant gate.<\/p>\n<hr style=\"margin:2.5rem 0;border:0;border-top:1px solid #e5e7eb;\">\n<h2 style=\"margin:3rem 0 1rem;font-size:1.65rem;line-height:1.3;font-weight:700;color:#111827;\">The real question<\/h2>\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.4rem;line-height:1.85;font-size:1.0625rem;color:#1f2937;\">Time-window portals make sense\u2014for the share of your deliveries where you actually are the client. For that share, you create structure, predictability, documentation.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.4rem;line-height:1.85;font-size:1.0625rem;color:#1f2937;\">But what about the other part?<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.4rem;line-height:1.85;font-size:1.0625rem;color:#1f2937;\">How many of your current deliveries come from hauliers you never hired yourselves\u2014and how many of those will show up tomorrow morning between 06:30 and 08:00 at the gate?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<hr style=\"max-width:720px;margin:3rem auto 0;border:0;border-top:1px solid #e5e7eb;\" \/>\n<section class=\"heylog-faq\" aria-label=\"Frequently Asked Questions\" style=\"max-width:720px;margin:2rem auto;padding:0;font-family:inherit;color:#1f2937;\">\n<h2 style=\"font-size:1.5rem;line-height:1.3;font-weight:700;margin:0 0 1.25rem;color:#111827;letter-spacing:-0.01em;\">Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2>\n<div class=\"heylog-faq-item\" style=\"margin:0 0 0.75rem;padding:1.1rem 1.25rem;background:#f6f7f9;border-radius:10px;border-left:3px solid #122CC5;\">\n<h3 style=\"font-size:1.05rem;line-height:1.4;font-weight:600;margin:0 0 0.5rem;color:#111827;\">What does FCA inbound mean for arrival control at the plant?<\/h3>\n<p style=\"font-size:1rem;line-height:1.7;margin:0;color:#374151;\">With FCA inbound, your supplier hires the haulier themselves. You have no contractual basis towards this carrier to enforce slot bookings or pre-notification. Estimates for the DACH region suggest that 40 to 70 percent of all inbound deliveries occur under FCA terms\u2014a significant share that time-window portals cannot structurally cover.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"heylog-faq-item\" style=\"margin:0 0 0.75rem;padding:1.1rem 1.25rem;background:#f6f7f9;border-radius:10px;border-left:3px solid #122CC5;\">\n<h3 style=\"font-size:1.05rem;line-height:1.4;font-weight:600;margin:0 0 0.5rem;color:#111827;\">Why don&#8217;t time-window portals work reliably for FCA deliveries?<\/h3>\n<p style=\"font-size:1rem;line-height:1.7;margin:0;color:#374151;\">Time-window portals assume the haulier was hired or at least instructed by you. With FCA inbound, the supplier selects the carrier independently\u2014they may not know your portal and have no incentive to book. Industry data shows that even with portals in place, a relevant proportion of deliveries arrive without a booked slot.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"heylog-faq-item\" style=\"margin:0 0 0.75rem;padding:1.1rem 1.25rem;background:#f6f7f9;border-radius:10px;border-left:3px solid #122CC5;\">\n<h3 style=\"font-size:1.05rem;line-height:1.4;font-weight:600;margin:0 0 0.5rem;color:#111827;\">How can you practically reduce FCA blind flying in inbound?<\/h3>\n<p style=\"font-size:1rem;line-height:1.7;margin:0;color:#374151;\">Since you cannot mandate the haulier with FCA inbound, a direct communication channel to the driver themselves\u2014before departure, not at the gate\u2014helps. Solutions that contact the driver via WhatsApp and request arrival confirmation work independently of which haulier executes the job, and close the information gap in the final 12 to 24 hours before delivery.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p><script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"Article\",\"headline\":\"FCA Inbound: Why You Cannot Control Hauliers You Never Hired\",\"description\":\"40\u201370% of DACH inbound operates under FCA terms\u2014meaning you lose all leverage over the haulier and arrival time. 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What this means for your yard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1392,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nicht-kategorisiert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/heylog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/heylog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/heylog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heylog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heylog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1848"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/heylog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1884,"href":"https:\/\/heylog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848\/revisions\/1884"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heylog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/heylog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heylog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heylog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}