On-Time & In-Full: Hitting OTIF Targets with Real-Time Tracking

Your frozen food load left Memphis at 6:00 a.m., due at Walmart by 2:00 p.m. Around mile marker 147, the reefer unit starts acting up—with the temperature climbing from -10 up toward the danger zone.

Nobody knows yet. The driver’s cruising along, dispatch sees a dot moving north. Everything looks perfect.

Three hours later, reality hits. The load is ruined—and Walmart rejects it at the dock.

There goes 3% of your invoice, plus the shelf space you fought six months to secure.

Blind spots like this wreck OTIF targets everywhere you look. Pharmaceuticals cook at loading docks. Electronics soak up moisture. High-value shipments disappear between checkpoints. Disasters are discovered after they’ve happened, they aren’t prevented, and penalties keep getting steeper.

The only hope to eliminate this gap is to embrace real-time tracking—and we can explain how and why.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

How Tive Turns OTIF Panic into Predictable Performance

You’ve got sensors on your shipments now. Great. But raw data without action just gives you a front-row seat to watch penalties pile up. The difference between knowing your reefer failed and actually saving that load comes down to three capabilities working together: accurate ETAs that update constantly, alerts that hit your phone before problems explode, and routing intelligence that keeps you out of trouble altogether.

Live ETAs that Bring Value

Tive trackers stream location and condition data straight to your dashboard, then push it through whatever system you already use. These ETAs adjust constantly based on actual movement patterns, not the fantasy timeline your carrier promised. When your truck hits unexpected construction, the ETA updates immediately, and you see that the 2:00 p.m. Walmart delivery is slipping—but now you have time to call and reschedule. Real-time shipment visibility means the receiving door won’t be locked when your driver shows up three hours late… because you already moved the appointment.

Alerts that Give You Time to Act

Geofences catch problems the second they happen. If your truck never leaves the distribution center, you find out immediately,—not four hours after the journey should have started. The driver takes an unscheduled detour, and your phone pings while you can still get them back on route. The temperature begins creeping toward rejection range, and you’re calling the driver before the entire load spoils.

Smarter Routes Based on What Actually Happens

Every completed shipment feeds intelligence back into your routing decisions. Tive’s ground truth data reveals which routes consistently hit delays, which lanes run hot, which rest stops see frequent cargo theft, and which carriers actually maintain schedules—versus treating delivery windows like suggestions. Companies using this visibility to guide routing cut fuel costs by double digits while their OTIF scores climb. It’s no wonder that Kroger and other major grocers now demand real-time location and temperature data on all inbound loads, because the shipments that avoid problems don’t need last-minute saves.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

How Crane Solutions Eliminated Late Fees on Million-Dollar Shipments

Crane Solutions moves loads worth anywhere from $100,000 to several million dollars per truck, including server racks, solar panels, satellites, and designer clothing. So understandably, Josh Hussin, Crane’s client development manager, was growing sick and tired of eating late penalties on high-value shipments. He figured why not run a three-month Tive pilot tracking nine dedicated trailers to see if better visibility could solve Crane’s on-time delivery problems? The results spoke for themselves.

• Added tracking data straight into its TMS: Crane integrated Tive directly into its existing transportation management system, which meant dispatchers could see shipments falling behind in their regular workflow. The granular updates showed them exactly when loads started running late—which gave them time to fix problems instead of finding out at the delivery dock.
• Fixed the dead zone problem: Hussin discovered Tive trackers work even in those frustrating dead zones across the U.S.—where shipments usually vanish for hours. Setting the trackers to ping every 30 minutes, the units lasted 45 days straight—so Crane always knew if their million-dollar loads were going to make their delivery windows or needed intervention.
• Turned late surprises into managed deliveries: When shipments started falling behind, Crane called customers immediately with new ETAs. Receivers could adjust their dock schedules and labor before trucks showed up late. What used to trigger automatic 3% penalties became successfully rescheduled deliveries that still met OTIF targets.
• Caught detours that threatened delivery times: Every unauthorized door opening triggers an alert, revealing when drivers who stopped at unscheduled locations. Crane could get drivers back on route before these detours pushed arrivals past their delivery windows, protecting both their dedicated service promises and their scorecards.
• Made premium tracking a selling point: After proving the system worked, Crane started offering Tive tracking to its construction clients and other divisions as a value-added service. Crane stopped depending on spotty driver phone calls, and started guaranteeing the kind of visibility that keeps expensive loads on schedule—and relationships intact.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Stop Watching Penalties Happen & Start Preventing Them

You know exactly how OTIF failures happen. Same story, different day. The frustrating part, though, is that no matter the disaster, it likely could have been prevented if you’d known about it two hours earlier. Crane Solutions figured this out when it tested real-time tracking on its million-dollar loads—and could suddenly see delays developing, temperature problems starting, and unauthorized stops happening.

Tive built an entire platform around giving you back those crucial hours. We monitor what kills OTIF targets—temperature excursions, route deviations, unauthorized stops, shock events—and alert you the moment things drift off course. Our sensors work where others fail, our batteries last longer than your longest hauls, and our 24/7 monitoring team handles carrier issues while you manage the customer relationship.

Pharmaceutical shippers and food companies trust us with their cold chains and compliance data. Electronics manufacturers protect their high-value loads using Tive. The common thread is that they all hit their OTIF targets because they stopped accepting blindness as inevitable—and embraced real-time tracking.

Get started with Tive today and experience it firsthand.​​​​​​​​​​​

‍