What a freight audit checks
A carrier invoice is only correct if the rate, the accessorials, the weight and class, the fuel index, and the service all match the contract and the shipment record. Orca reconstructs each of those from the source data and flags every line that disagrees.
Validation coverage
- Contract, tariff, and rate-card compliance by lane, service, and carrier
- Fuel surcharge index, cap, and effective-date validation
- Accessorial charges: detention, liftgate, residential, redelivery, reweigh, and reclass
- Duplicate invoices, duplicate shipments, and re-billed corrections
- Dimensional weight, minimum charge, and surcharge creep on parcel
- Service-level failures that qualify for refund or credit
How Orca runs the audit
Invoices arrive by EDI, API, carrier portal, or document capture. Orca normalizes carriers, lanes, charge codes, and references into one data model, matches each invoice to bills of lading, orders, and shipment events, and applies the contract rules that apply to that shipper, that carrier, and that date.
Exceptions are separated from noise so an analyst only sees what needs a decision. Approved exceptions become carrier disputes with the evidence attached; Orca tracks each one to resolution and reports recovery, aging, and root cause.
- Pre-payment audit so errors are stopped before cash leaves
- Post-payment audit for historical recovery on prior invoices
- Dispute preparation, carrier follow-up, and recovery tracking
- Audit trail that finance, transportation, and carriers can all see
Who freight audit is for
Enterprise shippers with multiple carriers, multiple modes, and multiple business units are the ones losing the most to billing variance. Orca serves manufacturing, retail, consumer goods, industrial, life sciences, chemicals, automotive, aerospace, and logistics companies, with the majority of carriers in North America and a growing base in Europe and Asia.
Typical triggers
- Freight spend growing faster than volume
- Carrier invoices approved on sample checks or not checked at all
- Contract renegotiations with no evidence of what carriers actually billed
- Month-end accruals that never reconcile to invoices
Outcomes shippers measure
Recovery is the visible result, but the durable value is prevention: once a billing pattern is identified, Orca works with the carrier to stop it recurring and reports whether it did. Clients also use audit-grade data for benchmarking, accrual accuracy, and negotiation leverage.
- Recovered and prevented overcharges by carrier, lane, and charge type
- Contract compliance rate over time
- Exception aging and dispute win rate
- Cost-to-serve by customer, product, and facility built on audited data
