FAP 101: Why Invest in Freight Audit Now?

The freight audit and payment market has significantly increased over the past several years, with an estimated CAGR of 13.72% from 2023 to 2030. Despite this, some enterprises remain hesitant to adopt a sophisticated freight audit and payment system.

But why? We’re debunking arguments against investing in freight audits, plus highlighting the key benefits of freight audit and payment software, specifically our transportation spend management (TSM) product suite.

Trax empowers enterprises with globally complex supply chains to gain full control of their transportation costs. By implementing the Trax freight audit and payment system (FAP), the leaders of large-scale companies have experienced benefits that they’re willing to share through authentic testimonials.

“Trax provides stable performance. It is a fully enabled technology platform that helps ensure seamless freight audits and tremendous transparency.”

Debunking the Challenges Associated with Freight Auditing Systems

There are three main arguments we commonly hear from enterprises related to investing in a freight audit system:

1. An advanced FAP system requires high initial costs.

It’s true that investing in a reliable FAP system requires upfront costs. However, when researching the right logistics provider, there are certain features to look for that indicate the system will provide a high ROI. For instance, consider the common mistakes that freight auditing systems can solve - billing inaccuracies, relying on insufficient data, and delayed auditing.

This leads to two key benefits of a strong FAP system: increased efficiency and financial stability.

Freight Auditing for Efficiency and Financial Stability

Analysts often rely on legacy data that can be old or completely inaccurate when conducting manual freight audits. As a result, enterprises waste valuable time and resources without a standardized freight data management process.

Considering how much of these costs build up consistently from bad data and auditing mistakes, investing in a long-term solution like an FAP system is a logical choice. In addition, if an enterprise chooses the right logistics provider, it will recoup the initial costs through streamlined processes and waste reduction.

2. Implementing any software requires significant changes in internal processes

This is a fair point because change is hard, especially for global enterprises that can’t risk downtime. However, avoiding a necessary change prolongs the challenges and allows for more problems. This is certainly the case regarding freight auditing because the longer a company relies on an antiquated system, the farther behind it falls in the market.

Additionally, with manual systems, supply chain leaders often miss important details about logistics operations due to siloed processes and departments. Without full visibility into every step of the auditing process, identifying every inefficiency and continuously improving is impossible.

FAP for Transparency and Compliance

By allowing leaders full visibility into their current processes and making changes slowly and steadily, freight audit technology improves internal processes. Once an enterprise can pinpoint its current problems related to freight audit and payment, it can strive for operational excellence.

Upholding data and policy compliance in the logistics sector requires a reliable transportation spend management solution based on consistent, accurate, and complete data. In addition, enterprises without a comprehensive FAP solution tend to have decentralized data from disparate systems. Investing in freight audit software means businesses can easily monitor all their data in real time.

3. Even advanced freight audit software can't prepare a company for a volatile market.

While market volatility often comes without warning, there are ways to prepare for changes in demand through advanced forecasting tools. Without the full data and tools to analyze it, enterprises will certainly be caught off guard when the market changes. However, the optimal FAP solution allows for predictive analytics, including forecasting for peak seasons of the supply chain and preparing for a softening market.

By reviewing transportation costs in real time, companies can build advanced forecasting models to better prepare for a volatile market.

4. What if the freight audit software can't handle enterprise-level management?

It’s true that not all freight audit systems are created equally, but that just means it’s more important to do your research before partnering with a logistics provider. Global Trade Mag released a guide to picking a 3PL partner highlighting the importance of 3PLs with advanced technology and diverse offerings. In addition, there are specific features to look for in an FAP system that can handle enterprise-level management:

• Multimodal optimization: By combining several shipping modalities (truck, rail, ocean, etc.), supply chain leaders can reduce costs. FAP software that leverages features like routing optimization, rate management, and shipment tracking is well-equipped to handle multimodal optimization at the enterprise level.
• Real-time data: It’s not enough to have complete and accurate data. Companies must also have their freight audit data updated in real time to make meaningful adjustments to operations.
• Full visibility: The ability to look at every aspect of transportation costs related to the supply chain is crucial for FAP software. While some FAP software still siloes disparate data sources, an enterprise-level solution will provide centralization.
• Seamless updates and management services: One thing that deters enterprises from adopting a new TSM solution is the fear that time will be wasted trying to update the system and manage the services. However, by partnering with a strong 3PL provider with advanced technology, supply chain leaders can rest assured that there will be no downtime during system updates, and a technical expert will always be ready to answer questions as they arise.

Trax for Enterprise-Level Freight Audit and Payment (FAP)

It’s fair to say that large companies may remain cautious when adopting a new FAP system. Despite the common arguments made against investing in freight audit software, the truth is that the benefits outweigh the costs if you choose the right provider. The Trax freight audit product suite provides unique advantages over traditional freight audit.

This is what allows global enterprises to adopt a new FAP system and maximize results swiftly. Our customers stand by our product and its capabilities, with testimonials like the one below:

"My overall experience with Trax Technologies has been one of the most valuable due to the extravagant features it provides. It allows us to gain efficiency, make sure that the organization is compliant enough and therefore reducing the overall expenses. It is one of the best solutions to track and trace our shipment details on time."

Now is the time to invest in freight audit software. Contact Trax today to learn more.