What is a freight bill audit and how much can you recover?
Last reviewed 2026-08-28
A freight bill audit is a review of your carrier invoices against your contracts and shipment records to find overcharges, duplicate bills, missed discounts, and late-delivery refunds. Shippers commonly recover 1% to 5% of transportation spend, per SupplyChainBrain and Transportation Insight, with the exact figure depending on carrier mix and how closely invoices are already checked.
- It compares the carrier invoice to your contracted rate and shipment record.
- Typical recovery is 1% to 5% of transportation spend (SupplyChainBrain, Transportation Insight).
- Accessorial overcharges and unclaimed refunds are the largest categories.
- Flat-fee auditing lets you keep 100% of what is found.
What is a freight bill audit?
A freight bill audit re-rates each carrier invoice against the contract and the shipment record that produced it. Rather than approving an invoice because the total looks close to expected, it checks the individual charges: the base line-haul rate, the discount that should have applied, each accessorial, and the fuel surcharge. Anything billed without a matching entitlement is an overcharge, and anything owed to you that was never credited is a claim.
What does a freight bill audit check?
Contracted rates versus what was billed, duplicate invoices for the same shipment, accessorial charges like detention and fuel, guaranteed-service refunds on late deliveries, discounts that should have applied, and weight or class reclassifications that raised the rate. Each is verified against the carrier's own record of the shipment.
How much can you realistically recover?
The 1% to 5% band is typical and is corroborated across multiple freight-audit sources. Where you land depends on how many carriers you use, how complex your accessorials are, and whether anyone is currently re-rating invoices against the contract. A shipper whose invoices have never been audited sits toward the top of that band; one already running a disciplined pre-audit sits near the bottom.
Which overcharges show up most often?
Accessorials are the largest category, because each one depends on a condition the carrier records and you rarely see: detention time, a residential classification, a liftgate that may or may not have been used, a reweigh. Published tariff rates for these are a matter of record, so a charge above the tariff, or one with no triggering condition behind it, is demonstrable rather than arguable. Duplicate invoices and unclaimed guaranteed-service refunds make up most of the remainder.
Why do these overcharges go uncaught?
Freight invoices are high in volume and tariffs are complex. A single shipper can receive thousands of invoices a month, each with a dozen line items priced off a tariff document running to hundreds of pages. Without someone re-rating every invoice against the contract, overcharges and unclaimed refunds pass through unnoticed, and the short filing windows on refunds close while the invoice sits in an approval queue.
Should the audit run before or after payment?
Both catch errors, but they differ in effort. A pre-audit holds the invoice until it is verified, so an overcharge is never paid and there is nothing to claim back. A post-audit reviews invoices already paid and recovers through a claim, which works but depends on the carrier's dispute window still being open. Many shippers start with a post-audit, because it needs no change to the payment process, and move to a pre-audit once they know which error categories keep recurring.
How do you get your own number?
A free review reconciles your last three months of invoices against your contracts and returns a documented figure you keep, whether or not you take it further.
Sources and references
- LTL accessorial rates as published in carrier tariffsAccessorial fees for 10 major US LTL carriers — 371 rows extracted from each carrier's published rules tariff, every row citing the tariff document and item it came from. Verified Jul 21, 2026.
Common questions
How is a flat fee different from a contingency auditor?
Contingency auditors take a cut of every dollar recovered, so the more they find the more you pay. A flat fee is fixed, so you keep 100% of the recovery.
What do you need from me?
Read-only exports of your recent invoices and your carrier contracts. No system access required.
How long does a review take?
The free review covers your last three months and returns a documented number you keep.
See your own number, free
A free three-month review reconciles your real data and shows you exactly what is recoverable. You keep the findings.