Nobody budgets for late deliveries. There’s no line item in your P&L for “freight that didn’t show up when it was supposed to.” But the cost is real, and it’s almost always bigger than the shipping charge itself. A $300 delivery that arrives a day late can trigger a chain reaction that costs ten or fifty times that amount. Here’s how. The Direct Costs Chargebacks and Penalties If you ship to retailers, you already know about vendor chargebacks. Walmart, Target, Home Depot, Am