Successful logistics operations are fraught with several technicalities and legalities, all of which must be performed with utmost speed and accuracy to ensure that all shipments are delivered to the exact destination at the specific time as stated in the contract between the shipper and the carrier.
Things become even more complicated in the case of LTL or “less-than-truckload” shipments which comprise diverse shipments or cargo for different companies. While these shipments are an efficient use of space by carriers, it definitely multiplies the amount of paperwork as freight bills, bills of lading (BOLs), and load confirmation statements which need to be filed and processed separately for every shipment.
While you may initially be able to keep up with the inflow of incoming documents, you may find your team struggling as the influx of paperwork increases. As your team receives more paperwork that it can process, you may find yourself facing issues such as delayed deliveries, incorrect billing, and even lost or misplaced shipments.
While hiring more resources may seem like the solution to the problem, it can raise your costs significantly. Additionally, as the volume of incoming paperwork continues to rise, you will need to hire more and more resources to manage the incoming volumes. As a result, the rising cost of operations can cause you to risk losing business as you increase your freight rates to pay for new resources or impact your bottom line as you cut into your profits to hire more resources.
Why Outsourcing Is the Answer
On the other hand, outsourcing these time-consuming yet essential processes to an experienced and dependable logistics outsourcing partner can help you improve efficiency, accuracy, and throughput while reducing your processing costs.
Outsourcing freight bill processing doesn’t just help you save time and money, they also provide you with access to accurate data within quicker cycle times, thereby preventing delays in shipment, duplicate or incorrect billing, overcharges, incorrect freight rates, pending or disputed claims, etc.
ARDEM provides fully managed logistics outsourcing and freight billing solutions consisting of everything from issuing load statements to freight billing and auditing. Our logistics outsourcing solutions not only help increase efficiency, accuracy, and visibility into your operations but also offer immediate cost savings of up to 30-40%.
Let's Take a Look at 5 Processes to Outsource for Smarter Logistics Operations
Freight Bill Processing
A freight bill serves as a contract between a shipper and the carrier specifying things such as cargo details (quantity, weight, etc.), delivery destination, delivery date, and the charges (shipping, taxes, etc.) applicable for the same.
As freight rates vary from one shipment to another, these bills need to be reviewed or audited carefully to verify all details and ensure correct and timely payment. Freight bill processing and auditing can be an especially tiresome job for LTL carriers who need to verify details for various cargo for every shipment.
Processing and auditing freight bills internally often result in delays, careless errors, duplicate or incorrect billing, incorrect freight rates, overcharges, etc. This is because most times these are add-on tasks that your team has to perform in addition to core business activities.
Outsourcing freight bill processing and auditing to a team of well-trained and highly skilled logistics experts can ensure that all your freight bills are verified, processed, and delivered right on time for delivery.
At ARDEM, with over 18 years’ worth of experience in logistics operations, we have processed millions of freight bills for our clients, combining 99.97% accuracy with real-time data delivery.
Bill of Lading (BOL) Processing
A bill of lading is another crucial document that plays an important role in ensuring a more streamlined supply chain. Once a bill of lading has been generated, it must reach the distribution center right on time for the driver to receive his shipment and has to been scanned into the system and shared with the customer.
Whether we talk about paper-based BOLs or e-BOLS, data has to be scanned, extracted, and processed from multiple data fields and sent across to the delivery center to ensure timely unloading, prompt payment, and even improve driver turnover as less time is wasted in waiting for BOL confirmation and unloading.
ARDEM has processed both paper-based documents and e-BOLs for some of the country’s biggest mainstream logistics operators while also creating customized solutions for third-party logistics providers, third-party payment providers, freight forwarding companies, and even the logistics divisions of major players in the manufacturing industry.
Our BOL processing experts are adept at handling multiple formats and processing accurate data in real-time. We further employ a perfectly balanced combination of OCR-based data capture and automation to map out thousands of different BOL formats along with effort-based processing to build a timely and responsive solution for our client’s BOL processing needs.
Load Confirmation Statement Optimization
Data from load confirmation statements are entered into an internal database to verify and record that the quantities and products for a particular shipment have been delivered successfully. The primary challenge faced by most transportation companies and carriers is how to maintain a high level of accuracy while entering data in real-time for an increasing volume of load confirmations.
Each load confirmation statement contains multiple fields of data that needed to be extracted such as order numbers, zones, locations of pickup, fuel costs, and contact information. All this information has to be extracted, verified, and processed in real-time to ensure successful delivery.
ARDEM has optimized load confirmation statements for some of the most prominent players in the industry whose current process was slow, time-consuming, and created more expenses than revenue when handled in-house.
We built scalable solutions by adopting a quality-conscious process to boost productivity while allowing our logistics partners to keep a lean team to focus on core competencies and further business growth.
Waybill Processing
Waybills are documents issued by carriers that contain important details and delivery instructions related to a specific shipment. While a bill of lading is a contract signed by both the shipper and the carrier, a waybill is issued by the carrier and contains shipment and invoice details such as the sender details, receiver information, pick-up center, destination, route, and the charges applicable for the same.
ARDEM builds fast, efficient, and scalable solutions for waybill processing by integrating with your existing ERP to extract, process, and deliver data for waybills right in time for delivery.
Freight Payment Auditing and Processing
Apart from processing and auditing freight bills, you also need to verify and validate the payment received to account for any missing revenue that may be due to unpaid invoices, errors in freight rates, or any other incorrectly entered details.
Verifying payment is also extremely crucial for your bottom line as accounting for any missed or incorrect payments can help you recover lost profits.
ARDEM’s team enters details from all received invoices and matches them against standard freight rates across states and federal guidelines along with documents such as bills of lading and purchase orders to verify and flag any inaccuracies in payment for perfectly balanced books.
At ARDEM, we have been able to build strong and positive relationships with our clients due to our responsive customer service, quality of work, and our ability to deliver success for every project, every time.
If you would like to learn more about which logistics processes you need to outsource or how we can customize a solution for you, schedule a free consultation with our logistics experts today!
