Freight Audit: Get Clarity & Control in an Unpredictable Market
When global disruptions are a daily reality—unpredictable tariffs, labor strikes, fuel price volatility—you may feel like control is an impossible dream and totally out of reach. But when it comes to freight spend, you still have options. Freight audit is one of the most reliable ways to control costs and protect your logistics budget.
Even small invoice discrepancies can add up fast, especially across hundreds of shipments and multiple carriers. A proper audit helps you verify charges, catch issues before they snowball, and gain visibility into where your freight dollars are actually going.
In this blog, we’ll break down the essentials of freight auditing, highlight the billing issues it catches most often, and explore how TFWW Manchester’s Done-for-You Freight ServiceTM simplifies the process so your team doesn’t have to chase down every discrepancy.
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What Is Freight Audit and Why Does It Matter?
A freight audit is the process of reviewing and validating carrier invoices to ensure charges match agreed-upon rates and services. This can include everything from base freight costs to fuel surcharges, accessorial fees, and peak season surcharges. It’s sometimes referred to as a freight bill audit or freight invoice audit—and it plays a critical role in balancing transportation budgets and holding carriers accountable.
For high-volume shippers and those that rely heavily on parcel or LTL, invoice errors are incredibly common and extremely costly. These modes are packed with variable charges, including residential delivery fees, dimensional weight charges, liftgate surcharges, and other accessorials that can easily be misapplied or go unnoticed if not monitored closely. In fact, recent reports show that parcel surcharges alone can make up 20–30% of total shipping costs. When you're processing hundreds—or thousands—of shipments per month, even minor discrepancies in these charges can have a major impact on your profits.
That’s exactly why freight auditing matters—especially right now. In today’s supply chain environment, where everything is unpredictable and margins are tight, shippers have far less room for billing surprises. Freight auditing provides a way to stay grounded. It brings clarity to freight spend to improve cost forecasting and hold carrier partners to agreed rates. Just as importantly, it gives your team the data and confidence to make smarter, faster decisions—without having to second-guess every invoice that comes through the door.
What a Thorough Freight Audit Really Looks Like
A freight audit is only as valuable as the details it captures. While some logistics and transportation providers offer basic invoice checks, those surface-level reviews often miss deeper issues that lead to inflated costs and poor decision-making. A complete audit should do more than simply verify numbers—it should give you insight into how your freight dollars are being spent, where mistakes are happening, and what actions to take next.
Core Audit Components
Freight audits should verify that every invoice accurately reflects the service delivered and the rates agreed to. That means digging into the fine print—not just spot-checking totals.
Rate verification against contracts — Ensures billed rates match agreed pricing for each lane, mode, and service level.
Duplicate invoice detection — Catches repeated charges submitted for the same shipment.
Accessorial charge validation — Flags added fees that may be inaccurate, excessive, or outside the original service scope.
Mode and service level accuracy — Confirms shipments were billed according to what was actually used (e.g., not charged for expedited when standard was requested).
Currency, fuel surcharge, and tariff checks — Validates that fluctuating variables are applied correctly and fairly based on contract terms or current rates.
Beyond the Invoice — Reporting & Visibility
An effective audit doesn’t stop at identifying errors—it helps you understand patterns, track performance, and support broader logistics decisions.
Tying audit data into dashboards — Converts raw billing data into meaningful insights.
Identifying cost trends over time — Helps pinpoint recurring issues or rising expenses across specific carriers, lanes, or modes.
Benchmarking carrier performance — Enables better rate negotiations and service evaluations.
Informing procurement and routing decisions — Equips your team with the context they need to make smarter choices that go beyond price.
Common Billing Errors That Cost You
Freight invoices are often dense, complex, and generated under tight turnaround times, making them a prime source of small errors that can slip through unnoticed.
Here are some of the most common billing issues uncovered during a freight audit:
Billed rates don’t match agreed terms — Carriers charge more than what’s outlined in the contract, often due to outdated rate tables or manual input errors.
Charges for services not provided — Fees appear for services like inside delivery or expedited shipping that were never requested or fulfilled.
Incorrect accessorials — Misapplied fuel surcharges, liftgate fees, or residential delivery charges show up without justification.
Incorrect weights or classifications — Carriers bill based on the wrong freight class or dimensional weight, leading to inflated charges.
Missed discounts or late fees — Contractual discounts may be skipped, or late payment penalties applied in error.
Any one of these might seem small on a single invoice, but repeated across hundreds of shipments each month, they slowly eat away at your budget. Freight auditing is one of the few ways to catch these issues before they pile up.
The Case for Using Freight Audit and Payment Services
Freight audit and payment services take the entire post-shipment process off your plate—verifying charges, resolving discrepancies, and handling payment. For busy shippers, it’s a practical way to eliminate the back-and-forth that drains internal resources and slows down accounting.
That level of support matters more as supply chains get more complex. Every carrier has a different billing format. Discrepancies take time to sort out. And if payments are delayed, it can damage relationships or lead to late fees. A well-run FAP program takes that friction out of the process and helps keep everything running smoothly.
Just as important, it brings consistency to how your freight costs are reviewed and paid. Over time, that means cleaner data, fewer surprises, and more control over your transportation budget. And when FAP is paired with the right level of human oversight, it becomes more than a cost check—it becomes a smarter way to manage your freight.
Why Automation Isn’t Always Enough
Most shippers use ERP or TMS platforms to catch invoice issues—but those systems only go so far. They’re great at flagging shipment invoices that exceed expected charges, but rarely have the ability to identify line-by-line discrepancies to pinpoint where the problem is.
When a carrier misapplies a surcharge or a contract detail gets overlooked, someone still has to manually step in and ask the right questions, contest the issue, provide backup and follow-up until there is a resolution. That’s why a freight audit process that combines automation with hands-on review catches more—and gives you peace of mind that someone’s actually paying attention. Not to mention the resolution is done-for-you.
Case in Point: How a Growing Manufacturer Regained Cost Control
A growing U.S. manufacturer was scaling quickly, but with that growth came logistical complexity and increasing freight costs. Managing LTL shipments and disputing frequent reclassification charges became a major drain on internal resources. Their team was spending hours each week reviewing invoices, challenging discrepancies, and trying to stay ahead of mounting freight spend. What they needed was a partner to take full ownership of the audit process and reduce financial risk.
TFWW Manchester stepped in as their dedicated 3PL partner, deploying our Done-for-You Freight ServiceTM to manage transportation, handle freight audit, and resolve exceptions from end to end. This included identifying billing discrepancies, pushing back on invalid charges, and providing regular reporting to improve long-term cost visibility.
In just one year:
501 shipments were audited, resulting in over $27,000 in recovered costs
315 hours of internal time were saved by offloading dispute management ($9,450 labor savings)
Audit results revealed patterns in reclassification issues, driving better routing decisions
Insights from quarterly reporting helped the shipper forecast more accurately and improve carrier accountability
By outsourcing freight audit and resolution to TFWW, the manufacturer eliminated day-to-day billing headaches and gained the clarity needed to scale with confidence.
TFWW Manchester: Making Freight Audit Easy
At TFWW Manchester, we don’t just handle freight audits—we manage the entire logistics cycle from pickup to payment. Our Done-for-You Freight ServiceTM is built to simplify every step of the process, whether you’re booking LTL, managing white-glove deliveries, resolving invoice disputes, or analyzing carrier performance. Freight audit is just one part of how we help you protect costs and run leaner operations.
If you're spending too much time coordinating shipments or chasing down billing corrections, we step in to manage the day-to-day execution for you. That includes working directly with carriers, managing exceptions, and giving you access to data you can actually use. No fragmented tools. No guessing games. Just full visibility and support from a team that’s hands-on from start to finish.
When everything else in the supply chain feels unpredictable, TFWW Ma gives you one less thing to worry about. Let’s talk about how we can help you take control of freight spend—and simplify the way you ship.