Hey
#Datafam
3 months ago, I built a freight intelligence analysis for FreightWaves using ELT, DAX, and PowerPoint. Here’s what the data whispered and what I recommend you act on.
3 months ago, I delivered a full freight intelligence analysis for FreightWaves covering financial performance, carrier efficiency, commodity profitability, and regional revenue.
My toolstack:
🔹 Power Query (ELT – extract, load, transform)
🔹 Excel
🔹 Data Modelling & DAX
🔹 PowerPoint (dashboard layouts)
No over‑engineering. Just clean data, sharp logic, and board‑ready design.
Here’s what 500 shipments told me and what I recommended to leadership.
🔍 3 Findings That Caught My Eye
1. Electronics = lowest margin (9.78%) – despite high unit value. That gap screams for a cost‑audit per lane.
2. 77% on‑time delivery – 23% operational leakage. Average delay: 8 days. At £4K fuel per shipment, that’s real money bleeding.
3. Revenue stable at ±£2M/month – consistency is great, but also means headroom for targeted growth (no volatility excuses).
📌 My Recommendations to Founders & Supply Chain Leaders
✅ Audit the “high‑value, low‑margin” paradox
Electronics & Pharma underperform. Use DAX measures to model freight cost by commodity lane and isolate the leak.
✅ Kill the 23% delay gap
Eight major delay incidents pushed avg transit time to 23 days. Investigate by route – this is fuel savings customer retention gold.
✅ Optimise carriers without concentration risk
DHL (23.22%), XPO (20.22%), MSC (19.48%) – tight spread. No single carrier dominates → good for risk. But it also means you can renegotiate across multiple players.
✅ Grow where the signal is strongest
Latin America E‑Commerce = £2M (top regional‑segment pair). Africa = £1M and growing. Enterprise segment revenue varies wildly (972K–£2M) → pricing or service inconsistency. Fix that.
🛠️ How I Built It (The Real Workflow)
1. Power Query (ELT) – extracted raw shipment data, loaded into a clean schema, transformed cost & time fields.
2. Data Modelling & DAX – built profit margin KPIs by commodity, mode, region; surfaced carrier spread and the Electronics gap.
3. Excel – quick validation and scenario testing.
4. PowerPoint – designed the final dashboard layouts for FreightWaves leadership. No BI tool sprawl – just clarity.
Supply chain data doesn't lie but it whispers. Your job as an analyst is to amplify the signal, kill the noise, and show decision‑makers exactly where value leaks and where it compounds.
Founders, business leaders, supply chain pros – what’s one metric you track that most people overlook? Drop it in the comments. Let’s talk data.
#SupplyChainAnalytics #FreightWaves #PowerQuery #ELT #DAX #DataModelling #FreightIntelligence #BIConsulting