EPISCS always reiterates the importance of knowing your company’s shipping profile and its data. This knowledge is irreplaceable when negotiating carrier agreements and determining shipping spend. It’s impossible to lower spend in an area if you don’t know how much is being spent in the first place.
Carrier invoices are complex for a reason — FedEx, UPS, and DHL want to prevent you from digging deep into the data to uncover the hidden pricing. A typical invoice contains unfamiliar verbiage and a sea of columns and rows. It would take an employee a significant amount of time to manually comb through the invoices, analyze the data and compare to other data points. All the data is there, but splicing it and understanding how it impacts the overall business is a challenge.
Understand rate changes
Carriers implementing rate increases every year is not new news. Some businesses believe they can just increase their budget by 5 percent to accommodate the price difference, but that won’t accurately prepare for the actual rate changes. The key is to dissect the specific, granular surcharges that are included in the increases. It’s in these areas where carriers diverge in their rate increases and calculations become more complicated. On the outside, the rate increases appear like it might not make a dent, but these charges often exceed the publicized 4.9% rate increase on shipping.
Let’s take a simple address correction charge for example. UPS rolls out a $2.50 rate increase moving the cost from $13.40 to $15.90 and resulting in an 18.65% increase. That’s only looking at a common simple address correction situation. If we look at the Over Maximum Limits surcharge the rate skyrockets from $150 in 2017 to $500 in 2018. This results in an astounding 233.33% increase.
Faced with increased shipping rates, it’s more important than ever to reduce costs in all possible areas. Knowing your company’s shipping profile is a determining factor in negotiating a satisfactory carrier agreement.
Get a line of sight into savings
The Prospectus powered by EPISCS is just one way businesses get to see the potential refunds they are missing out on. Once recent carrier invoices are submitted, a report of possible savings is generated for your review. If you already have a shipment auditor, this is a good way to ensure all refunds are being caught during the audit. EPISCS provides Prospectus as a complimentary way to preview the number of overlooked refunds.
Identify opportunities to save money
EPISCS sends weekly reports outlining and categorizing shipping data. EPISCS takes complex shipping data and breaks it down into easily digestible reports. Weekly emails detail all shipment and audit activities for each carrier account. Companies can analyze trends and expense drivers like fuel surcharges, accessorials, zones and weight classes using intuitive reports.
Once you have a complete and thorough understanding of shipping spend, you can architect a strategy for additional cost savings throughout the business. Not only that, but when you look at a carrier invoice you’ll be able to notice when something is amiss. It’s harder to be caught off guard when you know the data.
EPISCS specializes in spotting overcharges, finding fees, filing lost and damaged claims and negotiating FedEx, DHL and UPS contracts. Get access to real-time insights into your shipping profile with EPISCS.
