Why Audit

Alert shippers, both large and small continue to take advantage of freight bill audits to recapture hidden and lost dollars. Costly errors go undetected because there is no easy or economical way to check carrier rates which are shrouded in hundreds of unregulated technicalities. But, an audit specialist can cut through the maze to save you substantial dollars.

Public Service Traffic Bureau, Inc. has an extensive carrier library with many industry reference manuals and a staff of transportation professionals who have provided these specialized services for nearly a century.

 

The Audit Process

 

The audit; a highly technical review conducted by professional auditors demand special knowledge of the rate system and unique research skills to discover the correct rate in a library of complex and costly carrier tariffs. As a specialist, the auditor can conduct the search quickly, efficiently and reliably. Claims are filed with carriers and paid promptly.

 

The pay-off is two fold; one, it saves hidden dollars in the past shipments and secondly it alerts carriers so that they correct errors in future billings.

 

 

The Audit Approach

Expert professional auditors on the Public Service Traffic Bureau, Inc. staff reviews freight bills up to three years for Rail and Ocean Carriers and up to 180 days for Motor Common Carriers for a wide variety of causes of overcharge. Among them:

Incorrect rates Incorrect weights Duplicate payments and integrity audit: was proper party billed? Misdescribed shipments Oversight in applying alternative rates Shipment billed as collect instead of prepaid Incorrect interpretation of rate and weight application A wide variety of technical and legal applications of rates

 

The Claim Process

Public Service Traffic Bureau, Inc. on behalf of the client submits all overcharges claimed to carriers. All follow-up, review correspondence and other matters relating to claims are handled in the same manner, generally with no client involvement.

When claims are paid, checks are dispatched to the client Our invoice for the agreed upon commission of all refunds will accompany the checks.

There are three-year Statute of Limitations on the recovery of overcharges for Ocean and Rail Carriers. As a reminder, you may be aware of the 180-day requirement for claims on truck freight bills, unless you have been successful in negotiating more time into your Carrier Contracts. We have successfully guided our Clients into 18-month statute inserted into their contracts. This greatly assists the post audit process by allowing sufficient time to prepare overcharge claims.

Freight bills can be shipped to us via motor truck or United Parcel Service.

• We will then put the freight bills through our audit process. We will institute claims against carriers on movements that we have found to be overcharged.
• The freight bills will be returned to you, to a third party or disposed of, as you require.
• We will follow up on all claims and pursue them to their ultimate resolution.
• Carriers refund checks in payment of overcharges will be made out to your account and mailed to you when received at the end of each month.
• Our invoice for the agreed upon commission of all refunds will accompany the checks.
• There is no other charge or fee, and should there be no refunds there will be no remuneration to us.
• A double entry system is recorded for all claim transactions and a complete record of every claim is kept on file to protect our client’s interest