Having invoices hit your desk that don’t jive with the quote you received can not only be frustrating, but waste your time and cost you money.
In Part 1 of this post, I mentioned what I see as the 3 most common reasons for quotes not matching the final invoice you receive. In this post, I will address one of the biggest causes.
- Shipment is Re-Weighed and found to be more that on the Bill of Lading
Carriers routinely re-weigh shipments to find discrepancies and increase revenues. Now that technology makes it easier to perform this function, carriers that used to inspect 20% of their shipments now inspect 80% or more. Some are even re-weighing EVERY shipment that they pick up.
In my experience (yours too I assume) is that re-weighs by the carrier are not always correct, but unless you can prove what you put on the bill of lading is correct, or there is an obvious error by the carrier, you are forced to accept their findings.
Sometimes you get lucky and it is an obvious error like a recent shipment I had. My client shipped 3 pallets, all exactly the same size and weight. Yet, when I received the invoice stating there was a re-weigh, I requested the certificate from them. Odd how each pallet had a different dimension and weight. Now these pallets were all 40” x 48” x 48” pallets. What was even more peculiar was that one of the pallets showed on the certificate that it was 74.5” x 49” x 52” and the certificate had a picture of each pallet which contradicted the data. Clearly the “technology” was not working. Adding insult to injury was the 2 months and numerous emails it took to get corrected.
I’m sure you have your horror stories about your re-weighed shipments. When the error is not so obvious, how do you prove to the carriers you’re right?
First and foremost, know your weights. Not just the weight of the product, but all the packaging and pallets too. Next document that information on your sales sheet or in your product catalog. If you can show you have documented that information, you have a greater chance to reverse the extra charges. If you have hundreds of products, I know this this may be difficult, so there is an even better solution.
The best solution is to have a certified scale onsite. You may be thinking this is too expensive, but if you’re a higher volume shipper (60+ shipments a month) and you’re having an issue, this may be cost effective. I’ve seen scales that weigh up to 5,000 lbs for under $2000. That’s peanuts if your spending over $300,000 on shipping annually. If you keep it calibrated, it all but eliminates the re-weigh extra charges.
In my next post, I’ll talk about re-classification issues that allow carriers additional ways to increase your invoice.
Are you ticked off and tired of getting invoices that don’t match your quote? If so, and this worth a conversation to you, then contact me at miker@4way.com
