1. Do you know your real average payment time to carriers, measured to the date funds actually reach them?

2. Where law or contract sets a payment deadline, do you monitor actual compliance with that deadline?

3. Can original paper documents, internal document checks or minor administrative discrepancies delay payment beyond the applicable deadline?

4. Do you apply penalties, deductions or chargebacks to carriers?

5. Before applying a penalty, do you verify that the carrier controlled the cause, could reasonably have prevented it and can effectively contest the charge?

6. When waiting, cancellation or an exceptional cost is caused by your site, customer or instruction, do you recognise and compensate the resulting transport cost where appropriate?

7. Do you measure waiting time by site and investigate recurrent locations or processes?

8. Before awarding business, do you test whether the full package of price, waiting, penalties, empty running, required tasks and service levels appears operationally sustainable?

9. Could the carrier realistically refuse a load, condition or last-minute change without disproportionate loss of future volume?

10. Do you know whether your contracted carrier subcontracts and who ultimately performs the physical transport?

11. If cascading subcontracting is permitted, do you maintain traceability through every relevant level, including small carriers, owner-drivers and cooperatives?

12. Do you know whether the commercial conditions that reach the undertaking physically performing the transport remain compatible with lawful and safe execution?

13. Do your due-diligence controls address the risk that drivers in the chain are paid below the legally applicable remuneration or work under unlawful conditions?

14. When host-country or posted-driver rules apply, are the relevant mandatory remuneration and working conditions included in supplier controls?

15. Do your loading/delivery slots and KPIs allow legal driving, break and rest requirements to be met realistically?

16. Are drivers routinely required to load, unload, handle goods or perform administrative work that was not clearly agreed in advance?

17. Can carriers and drivers challenge an unsafe instruction, unfair deduction or operational condition without credible fear of retaliation?

18. Where a carrier is highly dependent on your business or has made dedicated investments, do you apply additional safeguards before major volume cuts or termination?

1. Do you know your real average payment time to subcontracted carriers and owner-drivers, measured to actual receipt of funds?

2. Where law or contract sets a payment deadline, do you monitor actual compliance for your subcontractors?

3. Do you require original paper documents or use document-validation processes that can delay payment beyond the applicable deadline?

4. Do your contracts allow you to impose penalties, deductions or pass-through claims on subcontracted carriers?

5. When you receive a customer penalty, do you avoid automatically passing it downstream without checking causality, control and proportionality?

6. Do you cover or compensate waiting, cancellations and exceptional costs when they are not attributable to your subcontractor?

7. Do you measure recurrent waiting and escalate the problem upstream rather than leaving it permanently with the executing carrier?

8. Before subcontracting a load, do you check whether the price and conditions allow lawful, safe and economically sustainable execution?

9. Could your subcontractor realistically refuse a load or last-minute change without disproportionate loss of future work?

10. Do you permit cascading subcontracting?

11. If cascading subcontracting occurs, can you identify every relevant intermediary and the undertaking physically performing the transport?

12. Do your chain controls include owner-drivers, cooperatives, micro-carriers and other small subcontractors rather than only direct corporate suppliers?

13. Do you have proportionate safeguards to ensure drivers in your subcontracting chain receive the legally applicable remuneration and employment conditions?

14. Do you look for warning signs that the final executing carrier can only perform the service through persistent underpayment, excessive hours or other non-compliant practices?

15. Can your subcontractors comply with driving, break and rest rules under the time windows and instructions you pass downstream?

16. Do you pass downstream tasks such as loading, unloading, paperwork or additional availability without clearly agreeing them and their consequences?

17. Can a subcontractor dispute a deduction, refuse an unsafe instruction or raise a compliance concern without credible fear of losing future work?

18. When a small carrier depends heavily on you or dedicates capacity to your traffic, do you recognise that dependency before changing volumes or terminating the relationship?