Importance of a Parcel Audit Service

In the logistics industry today, there’s nothing ‘small’ about parcel services. Every marketplace in our current economy is dominated by e-commerce and direct delivery services, with customer demand for both on the rise. Technological innovations in shipping software, coupled with increased efficiencies in transportation systems across the board, have not only made it possible to reach more customers in the comfort of their own home, but have also made it more profitable. 
However, no matter how advanced a system may be, mistakes can and do still happen. As parcel deliveries become a larger part of logistics budgets across the globe, the importance of a parcel audit service is becoming more and more evident. Utilizing an expert parcel audit service can conservatively save 4% on shipping costs. And besides putting money back in your pocket, a parcel audit service can also help to improve carrier service as well, making sure they keep their guarantees, and providing them important feedback for areas to improve. 

What is a Parcel Audit Service? 

Simply put, a parcel audit service is usually a strategic partner that reviews parcel invoices for accuracy, and then follows up accordingly. As we said before, carriers make mistakes, and while any one error may seem like a minor affair, spread out across thousands of shipments every year, those mistakes can start to add up, and dramatically affect your company’s bottom line. 
Here are four common errors an expert parcel audit service can help catch: 

• Rate Errors:
  As anyone who’s worked in logistics in the past 30 years can tell you, carrier agreements are anything but simple and straightforward. Delivery areas are only growing larger, denser, and more diversified every year, and carriers are adding new services to keep up, and thus new rates. This makes it more and more complicated to comb through invoices and validate shipping rates, meaning a technology partner with the capability to automate the process is essential. 
• Dimensional Weight: There’s more than one way to rate a package, and the carriers will usually try to use this to their advantage. An expert parcel audit service can help verify the correct use of dims and dim factors in shipment rating, to make sure your business isn’t being consistently overcharged. 

• Surcharges: It’s not only private customers that are embracing the digital revolution in e-commerce, but companies themselves utilizing advances in shipping technology and efficiency to gain a competitive edge on their own inbound shipments. For the carriers though, this can mean many different types of final mile delivery environments, and that usually means surcharges. Expert parcel audit services can make sure these surcharges are accurate, and your company is only charged for the services they actually receive.
   
• Address Corrections: Mapping software and address verification technology has come a long way recently, but it’s still not foolproof. If your carriers are charging you for multiple address correction fees, an expert parcel audit service will not only bring this to your attention, but also help your customer service department update their database to save money on future shipments, as well as go after refunds for incorrect charges in the past. 

Options for Parcel Audit Services 

Parcel invoices these days are complicated, and the process to receive them, store them, review them, and finally, to get them adjusted, even more so. While some businesses continue to perform this process manually, spending countless hours and payroll sifting through paper invoices, the truth it even a custom-built, in-house solution can take an exhausting amount of development hours and a large chunk of any departmental budget. 
There is a solution though. Modern advanced logistics platforms can offer the services detailed above, and many more, across all modes. The right technology suite can integrate seamlessly into your company’s current processes, and help you to automate the tedious task of parcel auditing, letting you and your employees get back to doing what they do best. In the background, that same technology can help watch out for you, letting you catch errors before they ever become a problem, all the while saving you 4% on the cost of your shipping. 
When it comes to your bottom line, the little things do matter. But that doesn’t mean you and your staff need to spend time and effort worrying about them. Thanks to digital innovations across the supply chain industry, today’s advanced logistics platforms can increase visibility and efficiency, while automating all recovery processes with a level of accuracy previously unheard of. 
If you’re ready to start doing the little things right, reach out to us at Zero Down for a Free Demo today.