The SLA that starts at ASN and the book that starts at the gate
A buying desk in Clifton Forge sent us twelve SLAs that all used the phrase “on-time delivery.” Four of them defined the clock as the ASN timestamp. Six used the carrier’s first scan. Two used gate-in at the named warehouse. The dock book used a fourth time: when the checker finished the last pallet.
None of this is fraud. It is four honest clocks. The argument at the QBR starts when someone averages them.
When we brief this pattern we print a four-column strip for each late PO: ASN, first scan, gate-in, put-away complete. We do not pick a winner in the room. We ask which column the signed paragraph actually named, then we count late minutes only in that column.
Georgian import files add a fifth stamp when customs release sits between the port and the inland dock. A Batumi release at 14:10 and a Tbilisi gate-in at 19:40 is not the same delay as a local milk run that sat in a yard. The briefing pack has to say so, or the vendor will (correctly) refuse the claim.
If your dock cannot produce ASN times, say that before you threaten a penalty. The map of missing stamps is often the most useful page in the pack.