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Carrier rate audit

A correct calculation can still use the wrong rate.

Carrier-rate review must resolve which contract, tariff, rate card, lane rule, amendment, and effective date controlled each shipment before comparing billed and expected charges.

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Rate authority comes first

Before rerating an invoice, identify the controlling contract, rate confirmation, tariff, spot quote, amendment, or customer-specific schedule. Missing authority should not be replaced with a default rate.

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Common rate problems

Typical issues include stale rate versions, wrong lanes, service mismatches, minimum-charge errors, incorrect weight breaks, incorrect dimensional or volumetric basis, and discounts or surcharges applied outside their effective window.

03

Fuel and accessorial interaction

Base freight, fuel, and accessorial rules may use different formulas, effective dates, caps, or rounding conventions. Audit each component according to the source that governs it rather than forcing a single generic formula.

04

Evidence for a rate dispute

A defensible case links the shipment, billed amount, controlling rate source, calculation steps, source-effective date, and review decision. The result should be reproducible by someone who did not perform the original audit.

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Effective dates are part of the rate

A customer can have several legitimate rate schedules across one historical audit period. The auditor should preserve who issued the rate, the effective window, supersession or amendment history, lane/service applicability and any customer-specific exceptions. Applying today's rate to last year's shipment can produce perfectly correct arithmetic and a completely wrong finding.

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Carrier-rate audit workflow

  1. Match the billed invoice to the shipment.
  2. Identify all plausible rate authorities.
  3. Select the authority that actually applied on the shipment date and document why.
  4. Reperform base rate, discount, minimum, weight break, fuel and relevant surcharge math.
  5. Compare billed and expected charges while preserving units and rounding.
  6. Human-review conflicting rate sources, missing amendments or unclear applicability.
  7. Track any later recovery separately from the audit finding.
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Carrier rate audit FAQ

What causes carrier rate errors?

Common causes include stale rate versions, wrong lanes or services, incorrect discounts or minimums, wrong weight breaks, effective-date mistakes, fuel-rule mismatches and customer-specific terms not being applied.

Can a rate audit use a published tariff instead of the customer contract?

Only when that tariff actually governs the charge. Customer-specific contracts, rate confirmations, amendments or schedules can control instead, so the applicable commercial authority must be resolved first.

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Start with a $0-upfront freight audit

Begin with non-sensitive business details. Freight files move only after scope and a secure intake route are confirmed.

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Questions: email RETALLY. 715 Yorktowne Road, Pottsville, PA 17901.

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Related freight-audit resources

freight invoice audit · accessorial charge audit · freight overcharge recovery