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Freight overcharge recovery

Recover supportable freight overcharges without calling estimates “money recovered.”

RETALLY audits historical carrier invoices for supportable billing errors, validates the evidence behind each finding, and tracks authorized recovery work through credits, refunds, remittances, and reversals.

$0 upfront audit · Post-payment review · Actual-recovery pricing

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A potential overcharge is only the beginning

A candidate overcharge can come from rate differences, duplicate billing, unsupported accessorials, shipment-evidence mismatches or missed credits. Before recovery is asserted, the finding should be tied to the controlling commercial source and actual shipment facts.

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Common freight overcharges worth testing

  • Duplicate freight charges. Exact duplicates, near-duplicates, duplicate PRO or tracking references, and corrected invoice chains that only appear duplicated.
  • Rate errors. Wrong linehaul, discount, minimum, lane, spot quote, customer-specific schedule, or effective-date version.
  • Fuel discrepancies. Incorrect index, base, percentage, effective period, or application method.
  • Unsupported accessorials. Detention, liftgate, limited access, residential, inside delivery, redelivery, appointment, reweigh, reclassification, or other add-on charges that do not match the governing terms or shipment evidence.
  • LTL billing issues. Weight, class, reweigh, reclassification, minimum charge, lane, and tariff problems.
  • Parcel billing issues. Dimensional weight, service level, surcharge, correction, duplicate, and credit problems.
  • Missed credits. Approved or expected credits, refunds, or account adjustments that never posted.

A flagged charge is only a candidate. Recoverability still depends on the evidence, governing terms, deadlines, carrier response, and engagement scope.

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How freight overcharge recovery works

  1. Freeze the population. Define the invoices, carriers, modes, date range, business units, currencies, and exclusions.
  2. Match invoice to shipment. Establish the economic identity behind the billed charge.
  3. Resolve commercial authority. Identify the contract, tariff, rate confirmation, spot quote, amendment, or schedule that applied at the time.
  4. Recalculate independently. Rebuild the expected charge using the governing terms and shipment facts.
  5. Human-review the exception. Reject duplicates, pre-existing credits, unsupported claims, and ambiguous records.
  6. Obtain customer authorization. No carrier contact or claim submission occurs solely because an exception was found.
  7. Track the claim. Preserve submission, carrier response, approval/denial, and correspondence state.
  8. Reconcile actual recovery. Match the credit, refund, remittance, or other accepted realized benefit and subtract later reversals.
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The evidence chain should survive challenge

A strong recovery case preserves the invoice, rate or contractual authority, shipment evidence, calculation, review decision, claim correspondence and later credit, refund or remittance. When evidence is incomplete or contradictory, the amount should remain unresolved instead of being promoted into a recovery total.

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Recovery attribution prevents double-counting

Pre-existing credits, automatic adjustments, incumbent-known findings and duplicate claims should not generate a new success fee. Actual recovery should be linked once to the validated finding and reduced if a later reversal occurs.

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Why success-based pricing fits recovery work

The initial RETALLY audit is $0 upfront. If a supportable opportunity exists and you authorize recovery work, the agreed fee applies only to eligible funds actually recovered. An estimate or unpaid claim is not feeable merely because it exists.

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Freight overcharge recovery FAQ

What is freight overcharge recovery?

Freight overcharge recovery is the process of identifying supportable carrier billing errors, documenting why the billed amount does not match the governing terms or shipment facts, pursuing an authorized correction or claim, and verifying the resulting credit, refund, remittance, or other eligible realized benefit.

What documents are usually needed to recover a freight overcharge?

Depending on the issue, useful records can include the invoice, BOL or shipment record, tracking or PRO reference, rate confirmation, contract, tariff, amendment, delivery evidence, accessorial support, payment evidence, prior-audit output, and later credit or settlement records.

Does finding an overcharge guarantee a refund?

No. A candidate discrepancy, validated finding, authorized claim, approved claim, and actual recovered funds are separate states. Evidence, timing, governing agreements, carrier response, and other engagement-specific factors affect the outcome.

Can you recover overcharges after a freight invoice was already paid?

Potentially. Post-payment freight audits review historical paid invoices, but the usable lookback and recoverability depend on the governing agreement, carrier rules, deadlines, records, and agreed scope.

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See whether recoverable freight spend may exist

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Related resources

Freight audit services · Freight invoice audit · Accessorial charge audit