How to Audit Your Lanes in One Coffee Break

If you’re already sourcing cars from auctions or other out-of-state sources, this article exists for one reason: to show exactly where that lost gross is hiding and hand you a 10-minute tool to claim it back.

Most of the time, gross profit slips away in small, familiar ways. A few extra days in transit means you’re paying more in floor-plan interest and losing valuable time in the arbitration window. Freight costs are often inflated, especially when broker fees are hidden in an all-in quote. Recon can sit idle when shipping is delayed. Managers lose time chasing trucks, tracking paperwork, and following up on delays. And, slower delivery means slower retail cycles, which limits how many cars you can move on the same credit line.

But even when you know those issues exist, it’s tough to pinpoint where the biggest problems are and what makes sense to focus on. The data lives in different places, like PODs, emails, and invoices, which makes it hard to connect the dots.

That’s why we put together a simple lane audit spreadsheet. It pulls all the key numbers into one place and does the math for you. You can just paste in a few months of shipment data, and you’ll get a clear picture of which lanes are costing you more than they should and how much you could save by switching to a more transparent, direct-to-carrier model.

What you’ll get from the lane audit

This tool is designed to help you do something most dealerships never get around to: figure out which lanes are helping your margins and which ones are quietly draining them.

You don’t need to build anything or track down formulas. Just enter a few columns of shipment data you already have, like origin, destination, purchase price, delivery date, and cost. From there, the sheet does the rest.

It automatically calculates:

• Your cost per mile on each shipment—so you can spot overpriced lanes.
  
  
• Your true holding cost per VIN—including floor-plan interest based on your own rate.
  
  
• How much slower each lane is than your fastest one—and what that delay is costing in real dollars.
  
  
• The total potential savings—if those same shipments had moved with AHX’s 4-day average and 15% freight savings.

No pivot tables. No complex setup. In 10 minutes you can make smarter routing decisions, cut waste, and hold onto more gross.

The magic: The formulas live in the header row and are protected, so you can paste data freely without breaking calculations.

How the spreadsheet works

We designed this tool with two goals in mind.

First, we help you calculate your real landed cost per VIN based on your own shipment history, vehicle costs, and floor-plan rate.

Secondly, we show you the potential upside if those same units had shipped using Auto Hauler Exchange’s faster, transparent model.

You’ll enter the shipment data you already have (things like delivery date, origin, and cost) and the spreadsheet will do the rest. It automatically calculates transit time, cost per mile, interest cost, and more. Then it compares those numbers to the AHX benchmark (4-day average transit and 15% lower freight cost) to estimate what you could be saving.

The spreadsheet has two tabs: one for shipment-level details and one that rolls it all up by lane.

Take a closer look at the spreadsheet in this walkthrough video.

Tab 1: Shipment View has your actual costs, broken down per VIN

This tab is where you paste in data from your shipment records.

Here’s what you’ll enter:

• Origin / Destination – City and state for pickup and delivery
  
  
• Distance (miles) – From your freight invoice or routing software
  
  
• Delivery cost – What you paid to move the vehicle
  
  
• Vehicle cost – Purchase price (used to calculate interest)
  
  
• Purchase date – When the auction closed or your purchase date
  
  
• Delivery date – When the car arrived (from your signed POD)
  
  

Once those are in, the spreadsheet will calculate:

• Delivery days – Time between purchase and delivery
  
  
• Cost per mile – Freight cost ÷ distance
  
  
• Interest cost – Floor-plan interest paid during transit
  
  
• Relative speed – How this VIN compares to your fastest and slowest shipments
  
  
• Potential savings – Based on how this shipment would’ve performed using AHX’s averages (4 days transit, 15% lower cost)
  
  

You can also enter your actual floor-plan interest rate in the blue field at the top of the sheet. That ensures your interest costs reflect your real carrying cost, not a generic industry average.

Tab 2: Lane Summary shows you the big-picture view

This tab automatically summarizes your data from Tab 1, grouping shipments by lane so you can see patterns across routes.

You’ll see:

• Total and average delivery days per lane
  
  
• % of shipments that exceeded 4 days
  
  
• Total cost of each lane – delivery cost + floor-plan interest
  
  
• Estimated AHX savings per lane – if those shipments had met our 4-day/15% benchmark
  
  
• Total savings opportunity across all lanes
  
  

This gives you a clear view of which lanes are the biggest drains and where there’s meaningful room to improve.

Why it’s useful

Use this sheet to uncover lanes where you’re consistently overpaying on freight. For example, if you have routes that take a week or more, those are tying up capital and pushing deals outside the arbitration window. Long delivery times are good opportunities to focus on.

Whether you’re looking to justify a new logistics partner, negotiate with current carriers, or just tighten up operations, this gives you the numbers you need to make the case.

Want to try it?

1. Make a copy of the Google Sheet
   
   
2. Paste in your shipment data on the first tab
   
   
3. Enter your interest rate at the top
   
   
4. Review the summary on Tab 2
   
   
5. See what you could save by switching to a faster, more transparent model
   
   

👉 Download the Lane Audit Spreadsheet