Subcontracted road fleet

Most operators mix own-fleet and subcontracted trips. The platform treats subbed trips as first-class, with cost tracking and POD capture end-to-end.

Subcontractor record

Each subcontractor is a vendor in the vendors module with:

• Company details, contacts, payment terms.
• Insurance certificates (with expiry).
• Vehicles they can provide (types, typical capacity).
• Drivers (optional; sub drivers often aren't registered individually).
• Contracted rate cards (per-km, per-trip, per-stop).

Compliance docs expire same as own-fleet — expired insurance blocks dispatch.

Subcontracted trip

On the dispatch board, a trip flagged subcontractor = vendor X behaves like an own-fleet trip with extras:

• Vendor reference — optional vendor trip ID for reconciliation.
• Vendor cost — either pulled from the rate card or keyed manually. Becomes a cost line on the shipment.
• Driver info — free-text (name + phone), since sub drivers may not be on the platform.

Getting POD from a sub

Two options:

1. Sub uses your driver app — give the sub driver a login (per-vendor driver record). They capture POD the normal way.
2. Sub sends POD externally — you upload the scan/photo against the stop. Slower, error-prone. Platform supports both.

Option 1 is encouraged because it's faster and auditable.

Cost to shipment

The subcontractor's cost is a cost line on the shipment. Combined with the customer's charges (revenue), you see margin on the shipment detail page. See charges & margins.

Vendor invoicing

Subs send you invoices; you match them against the cost lines. Matching happens in finance / vendor invoices with three-way match: vendor invoice ↔ cost line ↔ POD.

Performance tracking

Each subcontractor gets KPIs on /app/road/subcontractors/{id}/performance:

• On-time pickup / delivery rate.
• POD capture time lag.
• Exception rate.
• Average cost vs market benchmark.

Use these for vendor reviews and rate negotiations.