Freight Audit

A freight audit is the process of verifying every line item on a carrier invoice – base rates, accessorial charges, fuel surcharges, and weight or class adjustments – against the rates agreed at tender and the actual shipment details on file. It happens after delivery but before payment, serving as the last checkpoint between receiving an invoice and cutting a check.

A thorough freight audit compares the invoiced amount to the rate confirmation, the bill of lading, and any applicable contract or tariff. Auditors check that the origin and destination match, that the weight and freight class are correct, that accessorial charges like liftgate or detention were actually incurred, and that fuel surcharges align with the contracted index. Even a single mismatched field – a wrong zip code triggering a different rate tier, for example – can mean an overcharge.

The stakes are real. Industry estimates put freight billing error rates between 3% and 7%, which on a seven-figure annual freight spend translates to tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in overpayments. Without a consistent audit process, those errors compound silently. Beyond cost recovery, freight audits also create the data trail needed to dispute charges, hold carriers accountable, and benchmark spend over time.

Manual freight auditing – pulling up rate confirmations, cross-referencing BOLs, checking accessorial approvals – is one of the most tedious and error-prone tasks in logistics. Modern shippers increasingly rely on automated audit tools that validate invoices against tendered rates instantly, flagging only the exceptions that need human review. This shift from manual spot-checks to systematic, AI-driven auditing is one of the highest-ROI changes a logistics team can make.