As a general rule, most carriers seek an accurate representation of revenue, volumes, and other shipment characteristics. They also are motivated by the opportunity to gain incremental revenue and minimize dilution if they are the incumbent carrier. Finally, the carriers may offer better rates if you can help them lower operating costs and offer long-term partnerships with growth potential. A critical area that shippers too often ignore at the RFP process is the carrier's capabilities for value-added services. Most shippers do not take advantage of all value-added services such as electronic billing, shipping automation, customer service support, and other logistics resources.
Electronic billing is probably the most overlooked way to reduce freight costs.
With electronic billing, a shipper may recover significant audit savings by recapturing service failure credits or billing and rate overcharges. Upon implementation, most companies realize audit savings of between 4 percent and 8 percent, as well as substantial productivity gains. Even if your company lacks the internal resources to implement electronic billing, it makes sense to engage a third-party freight payment company to realize these savings. Most freight payment companies work on a contingency basis, charging only a portion of the savings they recover. Additionally, electronic billing can provide customized data to better manage your own shipping expenditures.