The shippers I speak with know I am particularly bullish on their ability to secure far more favorable shipping rates, terms, and conditions from FedEx and UPS right now. With excess capacity in their networks, both carriers are again eager to compete for business.
Many of our customers are not only securing dramatically lower rates, but are gaining important exceptions specific to their shipping profile on everything from heavily discounted surcharges to significantly altered dimensional weights and minimums. In negotiations, we see customers secure some of the most significant, business-changing concessions from carriers we have ever witnessed.
A recent news story brought about another indication of the competitive edge that shippers are facing. Many of you are aware that on January 22, UPS began to again honor a money-back guarantee for its 2nd Day Air A.M. service—something it tabled when our two largest carriers were more than willing to walk away from business—even with longstanding high-volume customers who were unable or unwilling to incur the dramatic new increases in shipping costs we first saw during the pandemic.
The tide has shifted, but as we all know, change is constant in our industry. Don’t let this opportunity slip by.
The continued importance of audits
UPS’s decision to provide a money-back guarantee on its 2nd Day Air A.M. service again is also a great reminder to audit your shipping spend. Even before we created Reveel’s Shipping Intelligence Platform and enabled shippers to gain real-time visibility and control over their shipping activity, a thorough audit uncovered savings. Perhaps the most basic of all cost-saving measures, they also almost always uncovered late deliveries in which the carrier failed to satisfy its own service-level guarantees.
There are three levels of a parcel audit: invoice audit, rate audit, and package audit.
An invoice audit includes:
- Late delivery credits
- Invalid address corrections
- Invalid Saturday fee
- Void or Duplicate charges
A rate audit is a review process that reviews the accuracy in charges. Using the actual carrier agreements, shipments are rerated to ensure they align with the shipper’s agreed-upon rates and terms.
A package audit checks the dimensions, weights, and services from when the package is shipped against what the carrier inputted in the final invoice.
Regrettably, even today far too many businesses leave subsequent refunds on the table. And if you are not religiously tracking your carrier’s performance, you are not only losing money, but likely are also impacting your own customer relationships. Late shipments reflect just as much on the sender than they do on the carrier.
Is your parcel shipping software doing enough?
Your parcel spend management software should be doing two things: saving you time and money. Did you know that 75% of parcel audit credits owed by UPS and FedEx go unclaimed every year? When it comes to audits, Reveel does it best. Our platform uncovers 100% of the refunds you’re owed at no extra cost to you.
Most notably, an audit is included in the free version of Reveel’s Shipping Intelligence Platform. It’s another reason why now is absolutely the time to review your shipping data, determine where opportunities lie, and pursue them. You will not be disappointed!
