Get your freight bills audited at no cost... There is no out of pocket cost. We give you the money to pay us with. This is nothing new in this business, it is standard practice.

   How it works... Send us your paid freight bills (or copies) and we audit them for overcharges, file overcharge claims for refunds with checks made payable to you. We turn over the funds to you and bill you for 50%. Or, if the effected credits or refunds are sent direct to you we will bill you, as well.

   Extra benefits... Besides the returned funds you get the feedback information to review and determine the cause of overcharges so you can take corrective measures on your own. The feedback information is in the form of detailed claim listing reports and copies of the claims can be furnished if requested. If warranted, we also suggest lesser cost alternative carriers or service you could use.

   Truck and Railroad shipment freight bills within the last 18 months and Air freight bills within the last six months should be audited. Pull and send those freight bills (or copies) to us by U S Mail or Parcel Post in securely sealed envelopes. They should be double sealed with plastic tape, as well, even if the tough Tyvek envelopes are used. Heavier parcels should be sent via United Parcel Service (also securely sealed).

   We also need a copy of your rate agreements as is generally supplied by the freight carriers which indicate the level of rates and/or the discounts and other qualifications applicable for your company. These are usually "signed rate agreements" or are possibly " regular freight contract agreements" with rate schedules as set up between you and your freight carriers.

   Is this worth the time and trouble? Yes, it generally is. Sometimes we don't find much in overcharges but that is not the rule. If nothing else, you get the peace of mind that your freight carriers are billing you correctly. We regularly find carriers overbilling their customers and either totally disregarding their rate agreements or are somehow failing to correctly identify their customer as one who is due a special rate agreement. Some carriers make more than 10% errors in their billings. 10% of the bills may be billed at more than double what they should be. This is not unusual...

   The carriers do not automatically refund their overcharges. They are supposed to automatically review and refund their over-collections which is refunding you when you pay a bill twice in error or somehow pay too much on a bill. A common situation is where a carrier sends you a freight bill and before they record a payment they issue a corrected freight bill for some reason and send that out for payment also. They usually get paId on each copy... They are supposed to automatically refund on these duplicate or over- payments. They do not audit themselves for overcharges. You have to see to that yourself. They audit themselves for undercharges and when they find they have not charged you enough (for some reason) they will issue a correction or balance due billing you for the difference.

   When they overcharge you and get paid by you they keep your money until a claim is filed for it. If they do not get a claim within 18 months they can keep it forever. Most carriers at this time think there is a 180 day time limit for overcharge claims, but, the legal statute is 18 months. They go so far as tell their customers that they cannot legally refund after the 180 day period which is not so. The actual situation is, they can merely choose to ignore or decline your claims received after the first 180 days but they can legally allow your refunds and just be happy they had the use of someone else's money for the time. So, there is some controversy in this...

   Unless there was a claim or legal notification of a claim to the carrier within the 180 days there is no legal recourse to the governing regulatory agency (which is now the U.S. Dept. of Transportation's Surface Transportation Board, not the ICC) during the remainder of the 18 month statute of limitations. All this means is that after the 180 day limit for notification or after the 18 month statute of limitations you can't go running to the Surface Transportation Board (the STB) for their help in your dispute or intervention to get the carrier to consider or reconsider a claim.

   Leading transportation attorney-consultant and columnist, Colin Barrett, of Barrett Transportation Consultants in Virginia stated:

   If a carrier refuses to process claims which are beyond 180 days old but within the 18 month statute of limititations and these claims are otherwise undisputedly correct, I encourage the shippers to merely offset (deduct) the claims against currently due freight bills. It may seem high-handed but the fact remains that they overcharged you and the truth is that they simply want to keep your money. The regulatory agencies have stated that the carriers can and should refund their over 180 day overcharges and that it is not illegal for them to do so (which they have claimed). It is simply as stated by Mr. Barrett (above paragraph), they would rather tell their customers that they " can't pay the claims" rather than they "won't pay the claims ". It sounds better, but it is simply a matter of carrier policy.

   Carriers are now publishing their rule on this in their rules tariffs, or in the NMFC (freight classification), or both, incorporating the 180 day rule into their rules/guidelines for filing and processing overcharge claims. This yet has the force of "policy" only, as opposed to the force of actual "law ". "It still remains that they "can if they want to" allow your refunds on their old overcharges."