The reason why businesses outsource their shipping services to third-party firms is to help reduce cost and improve efficiency. Unfortunately, the invoices by these companies contain mistakes, overcharges, and late delivered packages, which makes it necessary to carry out shipping audit. A company like the UPS has invested heavily in its shipping business but even in such big company, the errors are a common occurrence. Although they carry out their own internal audit, their audits are more of spot checks, which make it possible to miss some errors. A thorough UPS shipping audit can help identify the errors and thus, reduce your business costs even further.
When properly done, a shipping audit will not only provide you with cost savings but also a deeper know-how of your shipping processes. Auditing can reduce your costs by between 2 to 6 percent. It also provides you with detailed reports pertaining to all areas of your shipping activity, which can be vital in the development of better logistics decisions. A shipping audit makes sure that you are paying exactly the amount you were quoted by the logistics firm. Conducting a shipping audit also makes sure that the business resources are being utilized effectively.
Conducting an internal shipping audit can be time-consuming and costly as it will require an employee who would be using his or her time to do primary tasks stop and instead take the tedious and time-consuming responsibilities. Furthermore, an internal employee will only look at one aspect of the invoice and thus, fail to point out areas that can be improved or even fail to gather information that can lead to better management decisions. Shipping audit firms use state of the art technology to capture and store shipping details that can be used to help the management make informed decisions.
In fact, the data from shipping audit firm can be passed along the company to help shape best practices. The business can also use the data from the audit firm to help negotiate new terms and conditions for better cost savings. In case the carrier contract has expired, the business can use the data to compare options from other carriers enabling the business to make intelligent shipping decisions. A top shipping audit firm is paramount for any business that wants reliability and accuracy on its shipping while ensuring maximum profitability.
Conclusion
When choosing the best shipping audit firm for your business, you should ensure that the company has experience and knowhow depending on your business shipping characteristics and profile. In addition to checking errors on the invoice, the firm should also review the report to find packages that arrive late.