Freight Audit for Manufacturers

Freight audit is not the same as freight bill pay. Freight audit compares each line on a carrier invoice to the class, weight, discount, tariff, and accessorials quoted when the shipment was booked. Freight bill pay simply pays the invoice. Most providers pay first and deal with discrepancies afterward, while many freight brokers lack the technology to manage billing disputes at scale. TLI audits invoices before payment, so incorrect charges are disputed before they leave your account. Correct invoices process automatically, and only exceptions reach a person.

AP matching is important, but what happens when the invoice is wrong? The billing dispute. A shipment can total exactly what the carrier intended to bill and still be incorrect, reclassed under the wrong NMFC, rated at a wrong weight break, charged for a liftgate that was never used. TLI re-rates every PRO against the contract and original quote, then handles the dispute when we find an error with the carrier on your behalf. The goal is simple: your AP team gets a clean invoice to process instead of another billing problem to chase.

Billing disputes can damage carrier relationships when they are consistently incorrect or appear to be routine short-pays. That is why TLI uses TMS technology and supporting documentation to validate every dispute before it is submitted. We also look at the pattern: is the issue unique to one shipper, or are multiple carriers billing the same way? If every carrier is reaching the same conclusion, the carrier may be right, even when that is not what you as a shipper want to hear. When a dispute is valid, TLI submits the evidence, including the BOL, density calculation, tender record, and POD timestamp, directly to the same carrier representatives we work with every day. We handle the back-and-forth so your team does not become the adversary. The result is a more credible dispute process and a stronger carrier relationship over time.

TLI typically needs three months of freight invoices or a carrier spend export, your current contracts and discount letters, and lane detail in whatever format you have: CSV, ERP exports, or PDFs from multiple systems. If your accounting system does not retain density, freight class, or other data needed for a proper audit, TLI can provide templated letters to request the data from your current vendors. We normalize the data, connect the pieces even from various systems, and make it actionable. If your BOLs are split between carrier portals, email, and other systems, that is a finding in itself, and one ViewPoint can address that fragmentation at go-live. Alternatively we can process via physical .pdf invoices via OCR technology.

How quickly savings are realized depends on how often your carriers make billing mistakes and the size of those errors. Adding a new carrier often creates the most opportunity because billing accuracy tends to improve over time as carrier billing is corrected and refined. The audit is dynamic: every invoice is reviewed as it comes in, and disputes are filed as errors are identified. From there, savings depend on the carrier’s resolution timeline, which is typically measured in weeks rather than quarters. Before any data moves, TLI reviews your shipment volume and complexity and provides a written assessment of whether the recoverable exposure justifies the program. If it does not, we will tell you that too.

TLI can audit inbound freight in any direction, including drops and shuttles. We primarily audit LTL and FTL shipments and do not audit parcel.

Yes. Some shippers use TLI exclusively for freight invoice auditing while keeping their freight management in-house. TLI can audit your existing carriers against your existing rates without taking over execution. That said, an audit-only approach is not always in your best interest when you consider the efficacy of our capabilities. Our technology allows us to analyze actual shipment data, true base tariffs, and the many ways carriers structure pricing including point-to-point, class, density-based, zone-based, linear feet based, and many other contract types. This gives you an all-in comparison rather than relying on tariff discount percentages or estimates that may not reflect your actual cost. You may not have the rating engine or technology to evaluate every option side by side. Many TLI programs start with audit alone, and the first quarterly review often makes the case for more. Once you can see the lane-level variance, billing errors, and pricing opportunities, moving to managed freight becomes an arithmetic decision rather than a leap of faith.