Freight and parcel for transportation and freight
If your business moves freight for others, freight and parcel costs look different. You are both a buyer and a seller of transportation.
You buy capacity from other carriers, you pay for fuel and equipment, and you bill customers on rates you set. Fairview Audit connects you with a partner firm that can review these flows. Fairview does not perform the review itself.
This page covers the Freight and parcel category for Transportation and freight businesses.
Why this pairing is different
A freight review often starts from a shipper that pays a carrier. A transportation company may be that shipper only some of the time. A broker or logistics provider hires carriers to move a customer's load and then bills the customer. A carrier may hand overflow loads to another carrier. In each case, the money moves both ways, and a mistake on either side affects margin.
That makes two billing records matter: what you were charged by the carriers you use, and what you billed your own customers for the same shipment.
What a review typically examines
A partner firm would start by clarifying which of your shipments are purchased capacity and which are your own operations. Questions may include:
- Whether purchased capacity was billed at the rate in your carrier agreement or the rate quoted for the load.
- Accessorial charges such as detention, layover, lumper fees and reconsignment, and whether you passed them to the customer according to your own contract.
- Whether charges you paid on behalf of a customer were billed onward, or absorbed by mistake.
- Fuel surcharge treatment on both sides, and whether the tables in your agreements match.
- Duplicate payments to carriers for the same load, which can happen when a load is rebooked or split.
- Whether a freight claim credit was applied to the right invoice.
- Parcel services you resell, and whether the carrier discount reaches your customers as your agreements say.
Matching purchase and sale
One useful test is to line up each outbound customer invoice with the carrier cost behind it. Loads that were paid but never billed, or billed but never matched to a cost, are worth a closer look.
What to have ready
- Carrier and subcontractor agreements, with rate confirmations and amendments.
- Customer contracts that set rates, accessorial rules and fuel terms.
- Load records from your transportation management system.
- Carrier invoices and proof of delivery documents for a sample period.
- Payment records for carriers and subcontractors.
- Claim files and credit memos.
- A list of billing questions your operations or accounting team has already raised.
Tip: Ask your dispatch and billing teams how an accessorial charge moves from the driver, to the carrier, to the customer. Gaps in that path often show up first.
How matching works
You pick the request path that fits: larger business, smaller business or not sure. There is no fixed size cut-off between partner firms. Your request goes to the matched firm, or to Fairview for manual matching. After that you deal with the firm directly, and fees are agreed between you and the firm.
Some partner firms are set up for shippers rather than for carriers or brokers. [CONFIRM: partner industry detail]
An independent partner firm that specializes in freight and parcel handles this work. Fairview Audit makes the match. We do not perform the review ourselves.Who does the work
Frequently asked questions
I am a carrier. Is a freight audit relevant to me?
It can be, if you buy transportation from others, resell parcel services, or want your accessorial billing checked against your contracts. If you only haul your own customers' freight with your own equipment, other categories may fit better, such as insurance premium audit.
Will a review examine my customers' invoices?
It may examine the invoices you issued, since they show whether costs were passed on. The firm would explain its scope first.
Where can I read about common billing problems?
See the article on common freight and parcel billing errors.
Tell us what you need reviewed. We match you by hand with an independent partner firm. You keep your existing vendors.Find out what you are overpaying.