Updated 04-15-2025
Key Takeaways
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Not all freight audits are created equal—Trax goes beyond error-checking to enable strategic growth.
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Traditional audits fix symptoms; Trax identifies root causes to eliminate repeat issues.
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Trax integrates with any system, across all modes, currencies, and countries for full global coverage.
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The platform offers advanced analytics, normalization, and audit management—not just validation.
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Trax’s customer-first approach ensures collaboration, consistency, and continuous improvement.
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The result: reliable data, better decisions, stronger supply chains.
Any leader in this business knows this: you must have a handle on your numbers. In most industries, that’s straightforward, but in ours? It’s a different story.
The complexities surrounding freight invoices, supplier payments, and more have led to all kinds of innovation. At Trax, we represent the next generation of freight audit, leveraging digital-first solutions to maximize visibility and accuracy.
So, let's address some key questions:
- Will any freight audit solution work?
- Do all freight audits work the same?
- Is there anything better out there?
Whether you’re digitizing for the first time or evaluating your current solution, read on.
How Does A Freight Audit Work?
At the highest level, a freight audit is a comprehensive examination of freight bills and invoices. That’s where the simplicity ends.
Ideally, a freight audit works like this:
- Centralize invoice data
- Categorize and standardize information
- Verify charges and items
- Analyze data
- Generate report
There are endless ways this process can become convoluted, from missed steps to missed data points, and companies face major risks when it does.
As with any meticulous, precision-reliant process, human error and capacity limitations are challenging. The fix for tasks that are too repetitious, too data-heavy, and too laborious for humans has been technology. In this context, that technology takes the form of freight audit and payment (FAP) systems. Freight audit and payment are part of a broader ecosystem of transportation spend management maturity tools, helping businesses manage and optimize their transportation spend while building strength into supply chain operations.
For supply chain leaders looking to leap into this technology for the first time, let us assure you that freight audit software reduces tedium and expense, mitigates risk—including hidden accessorial charges—and increases efficiency. Those are compelling reasons, but if you’re still curious if this is a must, let’s keep going.
The Role of Freight Audit and Payment Solutions in Modern Supply Chains
Freight audit and payment (FAP) solutions do more than validate invoices—they provide critical insights into your operations and transportation spend. By centralizing freight data, these solutions allow you to identify and address invoice discrepancies, incorrect contracted rates, and other errors that can impact your bottom line.
For example, a well-implemented freight audit process can streamline payment processes, enhance carrier relationships, and improve overall supply chain performance. Companies that leverage these tools often see significant cost savings, not only through error reduction but also by optimizing carrier payments and controlling logistics costs.
Moreover, integrating shipment data with carrier invoices ensures complete visibility across transportation modes. This helps leaders make informed decisions about transportation spend, supply chain operations, and management.
Many companies use advanced freight audit software to optimize transportation spend and achieve significant cost savings. This software provides complete visibility into freight data, allowing businesses to analyze carrier invoices, spot invoice discrepancies, and streamline the payment process. By utilizing an intelligent audit approach, companies can quickly identify duplicate invoices and accessorial charges, preventing unnecessary costs. Integrating this solution into supply chain operations improves performance by ensuring accurate freight bills and improving client and carrier relationships.
Additionally, freight audit and payment tools provide powerful analytics that help businesses make informed decisions. This leads to better cost control and more efficient carrier payments, ultimately driving improved customer satisfaction and higher profitability. With the help of machine learning, companies can continuously refine their strategies, improving the overall logistics process and saving money in the long run.
Does Every Company Need Freight Audit Software?
Up to 25% of freight invoices contain errors, from incorrect fuel surcharges to duplicate invoices. If left unchecked, these errors can lead to significant revenue losses and point to deeper operational issues.
Every company needs a freight audit process—not just any process, but one that addresses these risks thoroughly. Here's why Trax stands out.
Cost Savings in Freight Audit
The real question is: Is there a better freight audit system than the traditional approach?
Traditional audits lay a solid foundation, but Trax takes it further. Trax upgrades your operational framework by providing deep shipping data insights that empower proactive decision-making—driving smarter, more strategic growth. This isn’t just a lofty claim—it’s what we do.
As the largest global provider of freight audit and payment solutions, Trax operates across all modes of transportation, with over 120 countries and 40 currencies covered. This global reach is why the world's largest shippers and most complex supply chains trust our technology.
Elite Freight Data Handling and Transportation Spend Management
Our data integration capabilities are bar none. We offer the following:
- State-of-the-Art DI Hub
- EDI, Edifact, FlatFile, XML, API, Custom (every type you can imagine, and customization for “infinity and beyond”)
- Integration with any system type, including API, sFTP, Https, AS2, Email, Paper
- Invoice imagining
- Trax PDX-PDF email
This unlocks endless possibilities for your supply chain operations. Our power isn’t just in connectivity but in how we equip you to manage data through data auditing, normalization, cleansing, and compliance. In a data-driven world, we are the best providers for supply chain leaders.
Getting to the Root Cause of Issues
This is a big sticking point for us: freight audit errors don’t happen “just because they do.” We believe there are root causes of your freight data issues, and we believe in doing the due diligence to uncover your actual problems, not just bandaging your symptoms.
If a freight audit happens once, we believe in chasing that error to its source and remedying it there. . . so it doesn’t happen again and create unnecessary costs. It sounds simple, but we are the only ones who put significant time and effort into doing it. We’re willing to work ourselves out of the hands-on portion of the job because, after a time, errors simply aren’t happening.
Audit Management
A sophisticated freight audit has the right foundational data integration and management components. But we also want to manage the audit process itself. With Trax, audit management provides invoice validation, tax audit, audit exception management, carrier improvement, and guaranteed service delivery claims analysis.
These are intelligent audits facilitated by technology but informed by the best minds in the business.
What kind of meaningful insights could you gain from audits like this? See real-world examples from Trax customers here.
Customer-Centric Focus
The Trax customer success team operates by putting you first. They achieve this by acting on the following values:
- Quality and consistency throughout your entire experience with Trax
- Offering the industry's best expertise, informed by our global presence and influence
- Regular collaboration (as often as daily, if needed) to meet your needs
- Continuous improvement processes that serve you
From your primary point of contact to company leadership, our entire operational structure revolves around putting you, the customer, first.
Trax Freight Audit
The goal of a freight audit is to illuminate the inner workings of your business. Only then can you form reliable conclusions and make strategic decisions.
At Trax, we support a journey from reactive to proactive, optimizing your processes to establish your company as an industry leader.
The right freight audit will enhance visibility, provide the right numbers, and help you forecast confidently.
To continue investigating our solutions, head to our global freight audit page, or contact our team to learn more.