Ian
Like with any other service, mistakes do happen with FedEx and UPS billing. Customers do find that they are sometimes billed improperly. And then, there are duplicate bills that bill the customers twice for the same service. If you are a business owner that ships in good volumes, there is the chance that you are not reading your invoices minutely enough.
That is why it is a good idea to have shipping audits. Shipping auditing services are critically important since FedEx and UPS errors are getting tough to notice but are abound. You will be surprised to see errors crop up right under your nose. They are the result of late deliveries, invalid residential delivery charges and incorrect address correction charges. Some packages are manifested but not shipped across. In some instances, the dimensional weight is inaccurate. There are other instances of duplicate charges or delivery area surcharges. A shipping audit can unearth such errors.
Cumulatively, these errors can amount to significant sums. So, invoices need to be carefully reviewed. There are several parcel freight auditing services available with third party vendors. These shipping audits on invoices can also help with other business related issues. Audits can show trends, repeating patterns and scope for optimization in terms of cost. So, you can save on several aspects with shipping audits.
UPS and FedEx offer a money back guarantee if they delay shipments. Shipping audits tell you how much FedEx and UPS owe you as refunds. Ideally, audits should be conducted every week on shipments done that week. You will also see which routes and destinations, service types and carriers are prone to delays and errors.
There are several surcharges and add on expenses that vary with time, when it comes to shipments. These need to be tracked diligently in order to make sure that you have not been overcharged for something. Shipping audits can be done pre or post deliveries. The goal is to ensure that there is no duplicate or improper billing. Studies show that companies that have diligent audits save on shipping costs significantly. So, learning from these best practices, it would be a good idea for any organization, big or small, to invest time in shipping audits. Shipping audits are time consuming when done manually. But there are several online vendors like LateShipment.com which offers a unique service of tracking and auditing all the service failures through a completely automated system. The end result is to reduce your freight costs and improve your shipping efficiency.
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