Most I used to find were 30 days, some used to take the mick though, one that comes to mind are based in Cinderford, 90 days plus and then they would claim you didn’t return a POD and scrape another 15 days because you missed the invoice deadline, best I ever had was a famer from Worcester, invoice on a Saturday by fax and the cheque used to turn up on Tuesday or Wednesday, brilliant to work for and very good rates too - not many of these old boys around now I suspect. 
limeyphil:
are you businessmen?
i don’t think so.
if someone told me that they weren’t paying for 90 days, then i would wind up their company.
or keep the next few loads. it would depend on my mood.
set your own rules and stop undermining the haulage industry.
You’d wind up Tesco’s would you? Good luck with that! 
Many firms pay 90days in many industries, not just haulage.
Fact is I’d rather work on 45days and KNOW i would get paid everytime rather than work on 7/14days payment and suddenly find it dries up and not get paid. Its about reliability of cashflow as well as regularity of work. Once you get into the cycle, it works out ok. It hurts a little to start with but you get used to it.
I would suggest that if you adopted such a rigid approach to business you wouldn’t last long…
I have pretty rigid terms of business (after getting stung by a subbie who gave me insurance certs to say £100k GIT but when £45 of gear was nicked suddenly claimed to only be RHA). Wrote terms for Subbies working for me and for customers I work for so everyone knows where they stand.
Pretty standard terms are that after failure to pay a carrier can exercise the right of lien… basically withold a load until payment is made… but to be honest unless you are owed mega mega mega bucks you wouldnt be doing this would you?
I invoice at the end of each month for payment by the end of the following month, I work for several small companies and some larger companies, but at best my customers get 60 days at worst 30 days. But like someone else said, I manage my cash flow because I know when my money is coming in. If someone fails to pay by the end of the following month I send a statement, give them till mid month if still nothing I will make a friendly phone call. Touch wood I havent had many major problems!
Also someone mentioned we pay for fuel weekly so why not be paid weekly? WRONG… I like I suspect many others, pay for fuel monthly on 45 days invoice terms. Its all about what you as a company negociate. If a fuel company wants my business they will invoice me monthly, otherwise I will move on to someone else. Likewise drivers… apart from expenses I pay monthly, Truck is monthly payments also!