When you are the party paying for transportation when goods are bought or sold, you need to know the charges beforehand to know your profit or cost. When the product moves via less than truckload (LTL), there are frequent instances when the transportation invoice is received it has greater than anticipated costs. The result of these adjustments is a loss of profit and an increase in labor costs. These issues can be addressed by following these guidelines.
Step One: Review the Data
Business 101 has you review data, find the root cause, and eliminate it. Bumps and potholes that may come up when evaluating carriers’ invoices to determine the root causes are:
- Bill of lading information is not always wrong.
- The carrier is not always right.
- Limited knowledge and experience with LTL additional services, rates, and charges.
To accurately review an invoice, you must be familiar with a carrier’s pricing agreements, rules, and practices. There also needs to be a working knowledge of transportation documents such as the National Motor Freight Classification and bill of lading. The process of challenging a carrier’s adjustment will require providing appropriate information and documents to support your case and counter the carrier’s documents. Only after the adjustment is considered accurate and why it took place is understood can the true root cause be determined and what action may be taken to prevent a future adjustment.
Step 2: Find the Cause
Determining the root cause when the carrier has changed the weight should be elementary. You just need to determine why the wrong weight was placed on the bill of lading. Did you consider if the carrier was correct in changing the weight or rated the invoice accurately? Even when the weight change is found to be correct, an alarming number of invoices have charges assessed more than what the weight change justifies.
Step 3: Eliminate the Issue
Sometimes the carrier makes a change and cites the packaging did not conform to the provisions of Item 680 in the National Motor Freight Classification. Does this make sense to you? If it doesn’t, you probably don’t understand if what they did was correct or what actions to take so this does not happen again.
Nexterus has the Knowledge You Need
Do you have the resources and expertise to examine your LTL invoicing to know what kind of problems you have, ensure the invoice is rated properly after the carrier’s change, or know when the carrier is wrong and provide a strong rebuttal? Nexterus does. Whether your need is assistance in understanding changes to your invoices, setting or evaluating the review process, guidance in negotiating pricing agreements, outsourcing the review of invoices, or total support of your transportation process, Nexterus can help. Nexterus’ Professional Services group has the expertise in carrier practices, the National Motor Freight Classification, pricing documents, carrier rules, and has the systems to support your specific needs. Find out more about how Nexterus can help your business by contacting us today.
