Rates & Fuel Surcharge
Alex handles rate and fuel surcharge mechanics at CheckMyFreightBill, including index recomputation and contract rate comparison.
The freight billing error percentage of spend is usually quoted as 2 to 5 percent. Nobody has verified it. Here is where it comes from and what it converts to at your spend.
Tracking freight recovery savings only counts when each dollar ties to a credit memo, refund or short pay. Here is the ledger structure that survives audit.
There is no trustworthy freight invoice error rate benchmark to borrow. Here is how to measure your own: the definitions, the formula, the sample size.
A working method for freight cost per unit calculation: what belongs in the numerator, how to pick the denominator, and how to allocate a shared load fairly.
How to compute accessorial as a percentage of freight spend, what to exclude, how to segment it, and why the trend tells you more than the level ever will.
The freight cost metrics and KPIs worth tracking, each with its formula, its data source, and what it tells finance. Plus the ones that only look useful.
An additional stop charge in trucking is pure contract, not regulation. Here is which stops bill, how the miles should rate, and how to audit each stop-off.
The LTL vs volume LTL cost threshold is not a fixed pallet count. Here is how to find where your own crossover sits and catch the overcharges it creates.
A parcel surcharge audit on residential and DAS fees runs the same two-part test as an LTL accessorial dispute. Here is the mapping and the evidence to pull.
Drayage invoice charges explained line by line: who bills each fee from port to door, which ones legitimately overlap, and which you should never pay twice.
How to read a truckload invoice line by line: linehaul, mileage basis, fuel surcharge, detention and stop-offs, and how every line ties back to the rate con.
How to read an LTL freight invoice line by line: class, weight break, discount, minimums, fuel and accessorials, and the four lines that bill wrong most.
The LTL vs truckload vs parcel billing differences explained: what each mode rates on, which lines are contractual, and where an audit actually finds money.
Freight bill credit terms under 49 CFR 377 give 15 days to pay, up to 30 by tariff, and bar late fees unless the carrier revises the bill within 90 days.
What must be on a freight bill is set by 49 CFR 373.103. Here is the required list, what each element catches, and how to use it as an invoice defect list.
The cheapest way to negotiate accessorial charges in a carrier contract is free time, caps, authorization rules, and who proves what, rather than the rate itself.
A field-by-field spec of rate confirmation required fields for brokers, with the exact settlement dispute each field forecloses before it can ever start.
Your contract has one sentence pulling in a carrier rules tariff incorporated by reference. Here is what that document controls and how to get a copy of it.
Six carrier contract clauses generate almost every freight billing dispute. Here is what each controls, how to read it, and the language to fix at renewal.
A fuel surcharge audit checklist for any invoice: six checks, the document each one needs, and the exact error each one catches. Copy it and run it monthly.
What happens to a fuel surcharge below base price? In nearly every contract it floors at zero, not a credit. Here is the clause that actually decides it.
Can fuel surcharges be negotiated? Yes, but not the index. Here are the levers that move: the peg, the MPG assumption, the cap, the base and the week.
PC Miler practical vs shortest miles billing changes the linehaul and the fuel surcharge on the same lane. Here is how to audit the mileage basis you pay on.
A fuel surcharge applied to accessorials is legitimate under some rules tariffs and an overcharge under others. Here is how to find the base and check it.
An LTL fuel surcharge table is a bracket lookup, not a formula. How to read one, where the percentage comes from, and how to check it against an invoice.
National vs regional fuel surcharge index: what a PADD is, which series your contract really names, and what the wrong one costs on every load you tender.
How the fuel surcharge works in trucking, end to end: the EIA index, the peg, the scale, and the week that applies, recomputed to the invoiced dollar.
Carriers bill fuel surcharge off the wrong DOE week more often than you would think. Here is how to find the right week and recompute the charge yourself.
The full fuel surcharge formula: peg price, MPG assumption, DOE weekly index, and cents per mile. Worked example with real numbers you can check yourself.