Here's what frustrates me about how the industry still approaches freight audit: too many people treat it like a commodity. Like a light switch. You have it, you're good, move on.
That mindset is costing companies tens of millions of dollars. Sometimes hundreds of millions.
The Status Quo Problem
I can't tell you how many companies we've replaced a competitor at and found massive waste that had been sitting there undetected. We're talking tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. And the frustrating part is that many of these companies thought they were covered. They had a freight audit provider. The box was checked.
But freight audit isn't all the same. The depth of analysis matters. The quality of the data matters. The ability to surface insights that go beyond basic invoice processing matters.
When you treat it like a commodity, you get commodity results.
The $100 Million Discovery That Had Nothing to Do with Carriers
Here's an example that still sticks with me. We found over $100 million in operational waste just by analyzing freight data. And the source of that waste had nothing to do with carriers or logistics providers. It turned out to be picking problems at the warehouse level.
That's not something a basic freight audit catches. That's what happens when you have clean, normalized data and the tools to actually interrogate it. The insight was hiding in plain sight, but nobody had the visibility to see it.
Why Are We Still Using 1950s Technology?
I say this half-heartedly, but also not really: how are we still relying on EDI? There's such a big infrastructure built on technology from the 1950s, and the industry just keeps chugging along with it.
Part of the problem is that so many people are okay with it. They've accepted that this is how freight audit works. They're not pushing for more because they don't realize more is possible.
That will change. Markets have a way of forcing the issue. But the companies that move first will be the ones who capture the value while everyone else is still catching up.
What Better Visibility Unlocks
When you have real visibility into transportation costs, something interesting happens. The relationship between the CFO and the head of supply chain gets better.
I've seen enough of these relationships to know there's usually friction. The CFO wants to reduce costs. The supply chain leader says, "Great, ship less." And it's hard to have a real conversation about trimming costs when neither side can see clearly into the data.
But when you have clean cost data that both sides can trust, the CFO becomes a real partner. Their FP&A teams can offer suggestions. Finance can weigh in on strategy. You bring more people under the tent, and generally everyone at a company wants the same result. They want to win.
Opacity in cost data creates friction. Clarity creates partnership.
The Shift Is Coming
I think logistics leaders and CFOs will both be better off when the industry moves past the commodity mindset on freight audit. Market pressures will eventually force companies to take bigger leaps. The ones who get there early will have a real advantage.
If you're still treating freight audit like a light switch, it might be time to ask what you're not seeing.