The hours that a distance-based account left out

A driver could bring back a signed delivery record and still leave the billing desk with a question. The signature might confirm receipt without settling a disagreement about waiting charges or an additional stop. I encountered those distinctions in my first job at Rithavya Cargo Services in June 1995. I had just completed a commerce degree at Veyadrish Commerce College. My responsibility was to prepare supported invoices and reconcile customer queries under the accounts manager, not to decide a commercial dispute on my own.

I learnt to ask what the document established before treating it as a complete answer. A transport operation had a physical sequence and a financial sequence, and they did not always finish together. Dispatch colleagues could explain what had happened on the road; the customer agreement explained what could be charged. Finance needed both. I became more careful about describing an open balance as a collection problem when the company had not yet completed the evidence or agreement needed to bill it.

In June 2000, I joined Taranvelli Cold Chain as a fleet-cost analyst. Refrigerated transport added costs and obligations that were not explained by distance alone. A vehicle might be waiting while its refrigeration equipment continued to run. A customer's delivery window could leave the next trip impractical even when the truck had travelled fewer kilometres than expected. I worked with dispatch and maintenance colleagues to understand those patterns. I was analysing the cost of the service; I did not set product temperatures or decide whether a vehicle was fit for operation.

Regional finance responsibility followed in 2006. I supported three hubs and their transport operations, with a small team maintaining local records and forecasts. Storage occupancy needed careful explanation. A chamber could have empty positions yet be unavailable for another customer's goods because of product requirements, timing or the way the space was organised. I learnt not to turn every unoccupied position into an immediate sales opportunity in the budget. The commercial and operating teams had to agree what could actually be offered.

My move into treasury and control in 2012 broadened the time horizon. Vehicle instalments, electricity payments and payroll did not wait for a seasonal customer to settle an account. I worked with the CFO to distinguish money expected under an established billing cycle from amounts that still depended on a dispute or an unapproved claim. The work included bank information and short-term forecasts, but the important conversations often happened with the person who knew why a payment remained uncertain.

As head of finance from 2017, I became involved earlier in customer proposals and storage expansion. That changed the quality of my questions. After a contract had been won, asking for another truck sounded like an objection to service. Before the price was agreed, it was part of understanding what the company was offering. I encouraged finance colleagues to join the relevant operational discussion early enough to influence an assumption, while keeping the commercial lead responsible for the customer relationship and the technical teams responsible for service requirements.

I became CFO in June 2022. Our family owners wanted a clearer account of how additional capacity would be used and funded. I now lead reporting, treasury, planning and investment evaluation through four managers. I present financial papers to the board but do not hold a directorship. The distinction matters to me: I have experience preparing and defending recommendations, while the directors carry the collective decision. I am interested in learning how to contribute from that different position at a suitable external company.

The decisions I find most useful to discuss are those in which the better-supported answer remained commercially uncomfortable. A distribution contract needed a higher price and tighter delivery arrangements. A smaller storage opening cost more per pallet. A cargo claim could not support the cash forecast merely because we believed recovery was justified. Those outcomes did not make finance the only careful function in the company. They depended on dispatch, quality, legal and commercial colleagues being willing to put their evidence beside the financial model.

I want my next stage to retain that practical connection. A board can benefit from someone who asks what an asset must remain ready to do and what that readiness costs. It also needs directors who recognise the limits of their own operating experience. I would bring questions shaped by cold-chain services, listen to the new company's particular obligations and avoid treating a familiar-looking vehicle or warehouse as proof that I already understand its business.

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