Freight Auditing Technology: Benefits and Common Questions
Updated: 03-25-25
Key Takeaways
Technology Drives Freight Audit Efficiency: IoT and big data optimize freight audits, improving control over global transportation spend and enabling better decision-making.
Real-Time Insights: IoT and big data provide real-time visibility across the supply chain, enhancing communication and agility, while identifying bottlenecks and lowering costs.
Outsourcing Freight Audits: Outsourcing to third-party providers can improve data accuracy, reduce errors, and increase cost savings by identifying overcharges and optimizing freight spend.
Automated Freight Audit Process: Technology-enabled freight audits streamline processes, increase operational efficiency, and ensure accurate and timely payments through data integration and automation.
Secure and Reliable Data: Outsourced freight audit providers ensure data security, transparency, and reliable, actionable insights to improve overall supply chain management.
Both the global supply chain and cutting-edge technology are evolving rapidly. These sectors are more intertwined than ever, and supply chain technology is becoming increasingly important for shippers in today’s volatile transportation climate.
The Internet of Things (IoT) enhances connectivity and provides real-time insights throughout the supply chain. From capturing and analyzing big data end-to-end, there are more technologically driven tools than ever to optimize your global transportation operation with freight audits.
Benefits of Freight Auditing Technology
Without freight auditing technology, it is next to impossible to have complete control of your global transportation spend. The addition of a best-in-class, tech-enabled freight audit solution pulls all the freight data captured via your tech stack, digests, cleanses, and normalizes it, and empowers your transportation leaders to make informed decisions with critical business intelligence.
IoT and Connectivity to Eliminate Manual Errors
Enhanced connectivity across your logistics operation empowers visibility, allows for more agility when issues arise, and reduces manpower through automation. A connected supply chain relies on the adoption of digital technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), enhancing your freight audit data by integrating real-time and historical data.
IoT sensors allow for real-time, end-to-end visibility, useful in many ways:
- Aggregating carrier billing data via any transportation mode, providing new track and trace capabilities for shippers while allowing for a more robust freight audit and valuable insights
- Automating inventory replenishment and data about consumption trends for maximum efficiency
- Identifying carrier performance disruptions to eliminate bottlenecks or common issues, lowering freight costs
- Streamlining communications between shippers and carriers, ensuring more agility with the ability to minimize disruptions, delays, and lower costs
Big Data Analytics for Complete Visibility
Big data analytics refers to tools, systems, and technology that organize and mine datasets for meaningful insights. The Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, and artificial intelligence have unlocked new capabilities, making even the largest, most unstructured data sets successful. Through automation and freight audit data integration, global leaders can analyze data and make informed decisions with critical business intelligence.
Real-time Insights and Real-Time Data
One benefit of a technology-enabled freight audit solution is the addition of a connected supply chain. When paired with the adoption of digital technologies like IoT, these software solutions supply real-time insights into every aspect of your transportation management operation, streamline communications, and future-proof your operations with predictive analytics.
Outsourcing Your Global Freight Audit Provider
Many questions surround the benefits of a global enterprise outsourcing its audits to a freight audit and payment company. We’ve compiled the most frequently asked questions and provided answers so you can make informed decisions about your freight audit and payment process.
How Does Outsourced Freight Audit Services Work?
When you outsource your freight audit and payment operations to a third party, you trust a team of experts to work through the burdensome, costly complications accompanying internal freight audits.
Issues that an outsourced freight audit process provider could address in the logistics industry include the following:
- Dealing with multiple carriers with differentiating procedures, freight rates, costs, and transportation data
- Tackling an insurmountable amount of FAP paperwork
- Devoting various, valuable internal resources to a task that will take a large chunk of their time
- Effective auditing by resolving mistakes, overcharges, and duplicate charges on time
What is an External Freight Bill Auditor?
An external global freight bill auditor is a third-party company that inspects an enterprise’s carrier invoices for inaccuracies, including billing errors and unnecessary fees. They identify and minimize overpayments and inaccurate freight invoices, increasing cost-savings and improving freight spend data quality.
Freight Audit Process: Steps to Optimize Supply Chain Efficiency and Cost Savings
A traditional third-party freight audit process includes five steps:
- Centralizing freight invoice data
- Categorizing and standardizing data from freight bills
- Verifying transportation spend charges and items
- Data analysis
- Reporting and data accuracy
This thorough freight audit review allows transportation leaders to enhance cost efficiency, optimize operations, improve data visibility, and ensure accurate and timely payments. In addition, global trade enterprises gain a competitive advantage by completing regular freight invoice audits that create visibility, eliminating costly mistakes that increase cash flow.
Is an Outsourced Freight Audit Secure?
One of the main issues of outsourcing is security. It's difficult to entrust a third-party organization with vast data, compliance requirements, and a complicated network of freight costs. To mitigate this risk, seek a solution prioritizing transparency, data security, and freight bill auditing. In addition, look for companies that are trusted in the industry and have worked with transportation situations similar to yours. Testimonials and case studies are a great place to start when outsourcing your freight audit to streamline operations and lower costs.
Does an Outsourced Freight Audit Generate Reliable Data?
In one word: yes. By onboarding a freight audit and provider solution that uses technology to audit every freight invoice from your transportation operation, your company gains end-to-end visibility into the data generated by your logistics operation. When compared against a cherry-picking approach to freight audit, your end-to-end data provides a holistic, reliable image of your supply chain management.
How Outsourced Auditors Manage Freight Invoices and Optimize Data for Cost Savings
A tech-enabled, outsourced freight audit and payment provider takes all your electronic freight invoices and ingests, cleanses, normalizes, and connects the data from your disparate systems. This provides centralized business intelligence, catches errors in freight carrier invoices, and decreases your organization's shipping costs, improving payment accuracy.
Your freight audit and payment partner should also provide comprehensive data management, which delivers a clear view of what’s happening in your transportation operation and what’s to come. With a flexible master data management framework, easily customizable to your global enterprise’s needs, you can establish global pricing rules that optimize transportation spending and ensure visibility for all stakeholders.
Find an Outsourced Freight Audit Provider
The days of manual, in-house freight auditing are over. In today’s volatile market, supply chain technology, automation, and end-to-end visibility across your global transportation network are necessities, not luxuries.
The Trax freight audit and payment process encourages global companies in the logistics industry to move from simple freight audit, and payment to total transportation spend management maturity. With Trax’s unmatched suite of products, you will drive efficiency, empower visibility, and enable cost savings.
Take the first step to improve your freight audit process and contact Trax today.