Carriers are known to make mistakes when billing shippers. Discounts aren’t given when applicable. Minimums and accessorials are often inaccurate. The money-back guarantee isn’t enforced when a shipment is late. Duplicate invoices end up being paid if the shipper isn’t vigilant about checking every single invoice. As a result, millions of shippers are leaving money on the table. Companies must perform regular freight auditing to ensure they recover overpaid freight bills and keep costs at a manageable level. If you are a 3PL, you work with shippers to manage their logistics operations, which might include auditing freight shipments.
Now that intelligent auditing software has entered the picture, shippers can get a clearer line of sight into their spend and leverage data to assess routes and carrier services. Let’s take a look at a few of the options that exist to either buy, build or license a freight auditing system.
Build
The cost to develop an in-house auditing system is time-intensive with heavy upfront costs. Because the shipping world and businesses are constantly evolving, a host of continuous updates are required to keep the system relevant in a fast-paced world. This alone would require dedicated personnel to build and maintain the software. If any technical glitches arise, a team will need to be deployed immediately to correct the issues. Building freight auditing software to the level of sophistication you get with a professional service takes a large investment in time, money, and IT expertise.
Buy
Purchasing a packaged software means the company will need to invest in training staff on the software’s infrastructure to maintain workflow. Software updates and patches to fix the software will need to be installed and managed by the internal team. Regular hosting fees and software support personnel are other costs to factor in when considering whether or not to buy freight audit software. The cost of acquiring such software is high and requires more manpower to be focused solely on the software.
License
Licensing is the hassle-free approach to freight auditing. You get to experience all the perks of shipment auditing without having to invest long hours in maintaining or developing the infrastructure. It’s important to choose your parcel auditor carefully. Some companies have steep service fees, fail to supply photographic proof of refunds and require an upfront payment to onboard. That’s not the best way to go. Share A Refund supplies real-time data and screenshot verification of refunds without any onboarding fees or maintenance fees. Share A Refund updates software and adds services, all at no cost to customers. For Share A Refund resellers, their brand is the only one customers will see on the invoices, marketing materials, custom website, and app.
