🇺🇸United States

Identified overcharges never recovered from carriers (payment recovery crisis)

1 verified sources

Definition

Even when freight audit teams successfully identify clear overcharges with solid documentation, a large share of those amounts is never recovered from carriers due to dispute friction and manual constraints. Industry commentary highlights that the majority of legitimate freight overcharges remain in carriers’ accounts indefinitely, representing a major hidden profit leak.

Key Findings

  • Financial Impact: Often 50%+ of identified overcharges, representing millions in unrecovered claims for large shippers over a year
  • Frequency: Daily
  • Root Cause: Manual, email- and spreadsheet-based dispute processes cannot keep up with the volume and complexity of claims, while carriers impose documentation-heavy procedures, short claim windows, and prolonged back-and-forth that exceed the capacity of small audit teams. As a result, many valid claims expire or are abandoned before credits are issued.

Why This Matters

This pain point represents a significant opportunity for B2B solutions targeting Freight and Package Transportation.

Affected Stakeholders

Freight Audit Manager, Transportation Analyst, Accounts Payable Manager, Shared Services Manager, CFO

Deep Analysis (Premium)

Financial Impact

$1.5M-$5M annually per 3PL (depending on throughput); 50%+ non-recovery erodes 3PL margin/reputation • $100K-$1M annually (government, high-compliance; 50%+ unrecovered) • $100K-$400K annually (2-6% of government shipping spend unrecovered; compounded by missed deadlines and formal process overhead)

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Current Workarounds

3PL creates manual dispute tickets in internal system; escalates via phone to carrier account managers; tracks in CRM notes (Salesforce) • 3PL maintains separate manual claims ledger; disputes go through carrier contacts via email with no integration to shipper visibility; claims status trapped in email threads; no automated pass-through of recovery to shipper • 3PL teams manually track overcharges in spreadsheets; informal carrier disputes via phone; clients escalate for refunds but 3PL cannot recover from carriers quickly

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Methodology & Sources

Data collected via OSINT from regulatory filings, industry audits, and verified case studies.

Evidence Sources:

Related Business Risks

Systemic overbilling and duplicate freight payments not billed back as recoveries

3–8% of total annual freight spend (e.g., $3M–$8M per year on a $100M freight budget)

Guaranteed service and late-delivery refunds not claimed

Typically 1–3% of parcel/freight spend on guaranteed services per year for high-service networks

International freight overcharges from currency and tax miscalculations

Often 1–2% of international freight and duty spend annually

Chronic shipping overspend from uncaught rating, accessorial, and fuel errors

5–8% of total freight spend per year in many networks

Escalating audit labor costs due to manual dispute and recovery handling

Hundreds of thousands in additional audit FTE or BPO fees annually for large shippers

Service failures (damages, delays) not translated into credits or compensation

Often 0.5–2% of freight spend annually depending on damage and delay rates

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