Why do my LTL freight bills always come back higher than my quotes? (5)
(5th in a series of 5 posts)
If you’re confused or frustrated by invoices coming back higher than expected, I hear you. Freight lingo and processes are foreign enough before adding in the each carrier’s unique billing rules. This is a solvable problem. This post will explain the issues and how to fix them for good. (Skip the “Solutions” section to find your specific fix)
Common Billing Problems
First let’s take a look at some common billing issues. If you see yours, feel free to skip down to that section under “Solutions”:
You can manage your BOL & accessorial info from TFWW Connect
Many billing issues result from the following:
Inaccurate or incomplete BOL
Inaccurate or unknown weight or dimensions
Surprise accessorials
Biller errors (such as wrong party billed)
Getting your BOL dialed in is the single most important step to avoid issues.
Inaccurate or incomplete BOL
The Bill of Lading is the legal contract issued by a shipper or consignee to a Less than Truckload carrier that specifies product details, parties involved and all pertinent shipment information. Without this document a carrier will not pick up a shipment. Approximately 70% of all additional charges and more than half of all delayed shipments are a result of avoidable mistakes made on the BOL.
Having an accurate and complete BOL includes having the correct NMFC item and sub#. For more info on this subject check out my deep dive on determining your NMFC Item.
Inaccurate or unknown weight or dimensions
The NMFC (the governing body of the LTL classification system) has moved strongly towards classifying most commodities using density. In other words, the class of your shipment depends on it’s weight and dimensions, expressed as pounds per cubic foot (PCF). If either the weight or the dimensions are incorrect that could throw off the classification and in turn result in a billing change. Carriers weigh and measure almost all the shipments in their system so it’s important to have this info accurately displayed on the original BOL.
Important to note that carriers will not allow you contest their reweigh or reclassification unless you have one/all of the following supporting documents linked to your shipment (by PO# or product info) showing the correct weight or dimensions:
Invoice
Spec sheet
Packing slip
Product or website page
Surprise accessorials
LTL shipments include delivery from a business to a business and a dock to a dock. The service assumes the businesses are open during normal business hours and can load/unload a truck. Any service above and beyond these presumed conditions is considered an additional “accessorial” service. Here are some common ones that will wreak havoc on a freight bill:
Liftgate pickup/delivery (specialized equipment to pickup freight from the ground or lower freight to the ground)
Residential - Carriers charge the most for this service as it pulls them out of their normal operating area and often involves other services like liftgate or inside delivery to complete. Further, these require an appointment and often inexperienced people
Limited Access - Pickups/deliveries to locations with security or some other limiting factor
Example: military base, hospital, municipality, university
Biller errors
LTL freight shipments are “billed” into carriers’ system by humans. Yep, just folks sitting at a desk entering the info from the BOL into a computer manually. As you might expect this is an invitation for mistakes and unfortunately the onus is on the paying party to catch them and request a correction.
Some common mistakes:
Extra “0”’s added to the weight
NMFC item #’s transposed or sub #’s entered incorrectly
Billed to shipper or consignee
Notes missed or misread
Solutions
So, how do you fix, and better yet, avoid these common billing problems?
Inaccurate or incomplete BOL
Avoid these common BOL mistakes by doing the following:
Ensure delivery, billing & contact information are 100% accurate.
Include all relevant delivery information no matter how trivial it seems.
Include an NMFC Item # (and sub #) and accurate description of commodity.
We talked about this already, remember?
Provide accurate piece counts, weights & dimensions.
Clearly state (known) accessorials on the BOL.
Inaccurate or unknown weight or dimensions
Side step any corrections by confirming and putting the correct weight and dims on the original BOL. If you’re not sure of the total weight, can you calculate by the number of units + the per unit weight + standard pallet weight (35 lbs)? Can you contact the original manufacturer or another party involved to get the correct weight/dims and documentation to back it up? If you simply can’t get accurate weight/dims, can you build in additional padding for reweighs? Chances are they will even out over time but you want to be prepared for the occasional additional “0” being tacked on.
Have backup docs ready. When a reweigh or reclass happens, it can be fixed with a “contest”. Having an Invoice, Spec sheet, Packing slip & Product or website page you will be ready to fix whatever comes down the pipe with no stress and limited time invested.
Check out the density calculator on TFWW Connect to determine your shipment’s density.
*In some cases, it may not be possible to know the exact weight or dimensions of a shipment. If that is the case, you have to be prepared for carrier adjustments and you’ll have no choice but to accept their reweigh/reclass. In some cases, they may be weigh off (🤣) but if you do not have the backup documentation to prove otherwise there is nothing you can do about it.
Biller errors
This is the easiest fix but has to be caught quickly to ensure a correct and fast invoice. When you notice a simple billing error, simply email the appropriate party to double check the original BOL on file to fix the issue. They will be able to pull up the BOL to review and then make that correct to the invoice. Then, follow up and make sure you get a corrected invoice.
Next steps…
Many common freight bill changes and billing errors are avoidable (accurate BOL, asking customers/vendors about accessorials, getting accurate weight & dims). You can save yourself lots of time and frustration with a little work ahead of time. But, when you inevitably do come across one of these situations, now you know how to handle it.
Alternatively, if you’d like to have someone else handle these situations for you, I’d love to speak with you. We do a complimentary freight audit on every single invoice that goes through our system. If it’s even a penny off we look at it and 90% of the time we can fix it on your behalf without you having to even know there’s an issue. You just keep doing what you do.
