Six places the money leaks. Between the load and the bank.

Most transport businesses that struggle for cash are not short of work. The money leaks out between the price and the payment. Here are six places to look, and how to check each one in your own numbers.

1. A quote that misses a cost

A forgotten toll plaza, a return leg nobody priced, a driver allowance left off. Each one comes straight out of the margin. On the N3 alone, a class 4 truck passes five mainline plazas between Johannesburg and Durban, R 1 274 in tolls at the 2026 tariffs (SANRAL).

Check: take your last ten quotes and rebuild them line by line. Our quoting guide has the build-up.

Worked check: the most expensive miss is usually the way home. In the quoting guide's example, an interlink from Johannesburg to Pietermaritzburg costs R 14 071,53 for the loaded leg and R 26 115,10 for the round trip. Quote R 16 000 as if there were a backload when there is none, and the load loses R 10 115,10 instead of making R 1 928,47. Those are example inputs, not benchmarks, but the shape holds for any lane.

2. Diesel went up, the rate did not

On 2 September 2026, 50 ppm diesel went up by 314,90 cents a litre (DMPR). For a truck using 46 litres per 100 km, that is about R 1,45 more on every kilometre, from one Wednesday to the next. A rate agreed in August no longer covers the same costs.

Check: for each regular customer, when was the rate last changed, and what was diesel then?

Worked check: over a month it adds up quickly. With example inputs of one truck running 12 000 km in September at 46 litres per 100 km, the September increase alone costs:

That comes out of margin on every load priced at the August rate. A fuel clause that moves the diesel portion of the rate with the monthly price closes this leak; our diesel guide shows how to work one out.

3. The invoice is raised days after delivery

Payment terms usually start from the invoice date, not the delivery date. Every day the paperwork sits in the cab or on a desk is a day added to how long you wait for your money.

Check: for last month's loads, compare the delivery date with the invoice date. The gap is time you are financing your customer for free.

If you invoice about R 600 000 a month (example input), an average gap of 5,6 days means roughly R 112 000 of work is always waiting to be invoiced (R 600 000 × 5,6 ÷ 30). Load 5 is the dangerous one: it missed the September statement. Our guide to invoicing on delivery shows what that costs on statement terms, and a same-day routine to close the gap.

4. No proof of delivery, no payment

Many customers will not pay an invoice without the signed POD. If the POD is in a driver's cab or a WhatsApp chat, the invoice waits.

Check: of your overdue invoices, how many have their POD filed with them? For each one without, ask: is the POD missing, unsigned, or showing a short nobody has resolved? A disputed line can hold up the whole invoice, so settle it with a credit note rather than leaving the full amount unpaid.

5. Debtors nobody chased

An invoice nobody follows up tends to be paid last. Look at your debtors by age: current, 30, 60 and 90 days. Anything past 60 days needs a call, not another statement. If your contracts allow interest on late payment, know the rate you can claim; where no rate is agreed, the prescribed rate of interest applies: the repo rate plus 3,5% a year (Prescribed Rate of Interest Act). With the repo rate at 7,25% from 25 September 2026 (SARB), that is 10,75% a year from 1 November 2026. The rate that applies to a debt is the one in force when interest starts to run, usually the due date, so note the rate on that date.

Worked check: on example inputs of R 50 000 paid 60 days late, interest at 10,75% a year (the rate for a debt that falls due on or after 1 November 2026) is R 50 000 × 10,75% × 60 ÷ 365 = R 883,56. Small next to the R 50 000 itself: the real cost of an unchased debtor is the risk that it is never paid.

Check: which customers are over 60 days, and when did someone last contact each one? See how TruckWys shows debtors by age.

6. VAT on money you have not received

On the invoice basis, which applies to companies, output VAT is due for the period in which you issue the invoice, whether or not the customer has paid (SARS VAT 404). Sole proprietors, and partnerships made up only of natural persons, whose taxable supplies have not exceeded R 2,5 million in the previous 12 months (and are not likely to in the next 12) can apply to SARS to account on the payments basis instead, and then pay VAT only as customers pay (SARS VAT 404, chapter 4). Check the current limit and your own case with a tax practitioner.

Worked check: an invoice of R 115 000 including VAT (example input) carries R 15 000 of output VAT (R 115 000 × 15 ÷ 115). If it is issued in the period and still unpaid when the return is due, a company pays that R 15 000 to SARS from its own cash.

Check: before each VAT return, look at how much of the output VAT relates to invoices still unpaid, and plan for it.

Where to start

Start with the leak you can measure quickest. For most businesses that is the gap between delivery and invoice, and the list of debtors over 60 days. Both come from records you already have. For the wider picture, read cash flow for transport businesses.

1. This week: list last month's loads with their delivery and invoice dates, and work out your average gap.
2. Next week: pull your debtors by age and call every customer over 60 days.
3. This month: rebuild your three biggest customers' rates from this month's diesel and tolls, and see which ones still cover their costs.
4. Before the next VAT return: total the output VAT on invoices that are still unpaid, so the payment to SARS is not a surprise.

None of this needs new software. It needs an hour, your invoice list and your bank statement. Once you can see the leaks, it becomes clear which one is worth fixing first.