Shipping Expense
It’s your money. Let us get it back for you, with our Parcel Shipping Audit and Reporting services.
Odds are 5 percent of your shipments arrive late. Odds are you don’t know about it and don’t claim your entitled refunds. Each year, up to $5 billion in shipping refunds go unclaimed.
Our shipping audit puts that money back in your company’s pocket. We audit FedEx® and UPS®, Less Than Truckload (LTL), and Truckload (TL) invoices and recover your refunds. Through our audit, reporting automation, and optimization analysis, we will help your business ship, save, and function more efficiently.
This service is contingency-based, so we get paid only when we save you money. If you spend significant dollars annually with shipping expenses, let our comprehensive audit and reporting service help you reduce your cost and improve your shipping service plans.
Guaranteed Service Refunds – Late Deliveries
All UPS and FedEx shipments are guaranteed. If a ground package is scheduled to arrive in five days but is delivered on the sixth day, you are entitled to a full refund. Similarly, if an express package is scheduled for delivery at 10:00 a.m. and it arrives at 10:01, you are entitled to a full refund. Our automated processes identify all late deliveries and secure refunds on your behalf.
Rates
This is an optional audit point. Please supply a copy of your most recent carrier contract and we will audit against your contracted rates and discounts.
Accessorial Charges
This process varies by accessorial charge. Simply put, we go through a process to ensure that these charges are applied correctly.
No Proof of Shipment – Manifested but not Shipped
Manifested but not shipped is a UPS audit point. You will be invoiced for any shipping label that is printed (manifested), even if the package is never shipped. We verify that each printed label corresponds to an actual shipped package (tracking and delivery data) and if not, we request a full refund.
Correct Addresses
We perform an audit to ensure that address correction charges are valid. We utilize the United States Postal Service’s database to confirm and validate addresses. This database is updated monthly. We analyze address corrections made by the carrier to ensure that the carriers are not arbitrarily applying invalid address corrections by citing an irrelevant data point as being incorrect (i.e. address corrections where the word Street is changed to the abbreviation St.). In addition to the hard dollar savings secured through the audit, we also provide soft dollar savings through our address correction optimization reports. Clients can use these free reports to update incorrect addresses within their database so these charges can be eliminated.
Residential Surcharges
We perform an audit to ensure that residential surcharges are valid. Invalid residential surcharges represent our third largest audit point in terms of dollars recovered. We utilize the United States Postal Service’s database to confirm residential locations and validate addresses. This database is updated monthly. Further, we have an algorithm that analyzes residential surcharge data on an invoice to ensure that the carriers are not arbitrarily applying invalid residential surcharges.
Delivery Area Surcharges (DAS)
Both carriers apply Delivery Area Surcharges to packages. These charges are applied using the DAS zip code lists created by the carriers. DAS zip codes could be a rural area or a high rise building or other zip codes that require additional delivery time. We verify that all the DAS surcharges on a client’s invoice are valid charges.
Weight and Dimension
We compare the clients standard box sizes to those listed on the invoice. We also ensure the centimeter to inches math conversion is correct as well as the correct divisor when calculating dimensional weight.
Duplicate Invoices
Our system identifies duplicate invoicing and eliminates the duplicates. We ensure that our clients will never pay twice for the same invoice.
Duplicate Package Charges
We compare four pieces of information that alerts us to the duplicate package charges. If we identify duplicate charges, we secure a refund. Our clients will never pay twice for the same package or any charge related to that package.
Signature Required
If a client utilizes this service and the driver doesn’t secure a signature, we will get the charges reversed.
Unauthorized Account Use
This is an exception report. If clients allow vendors and suppliers to use their account numbers we alert them if anyone other than approved account users are utilizing the account numbers. We ask that our clients provide us with a list of authorized shippers as well as both origination and destination addresses. We will then monitor the account use as well as provide exception reporting.
No Proof of Delivery – Lost Package Claims
Any package shipped with UPS or FedEx is automatically insured for 100 dollars for the contents of the package. We verify delivery scan information for each package and if missing, file a claim for the value of the contents of that package. This audit point is set at 61 days so that we don’t circumvent your internal processes. This is the only audit point that will require additional information. We need a contact person that we can email monthly who can provide a copy of the invoice that itemizes the contents and value of the package. Further, if you pay for a signature required delivery and the carrier fails to obtain that signature, we request a refund for that specific fee.
Saturday delivery and pick-up
If clients pay extra to have a package delivered or picked up on a Saturday and the service does not occur, we will get these charges reversed.