Most companies view freight audit and payment primarily as a financial control. Before payment is approved, carrier invoices must be reviewed for billing errors, duplicate charges, incorrect rates, unsupported accessorial fees, and other discrepancies. Because these errors are relatively common, companies with high monthly freight volumes across multiple carriers, modes, or locations can save hundreds of thousands of dollars in transportation costs.
However, within this steady flow of freight invoices is a wealth of information that remains largely untapped. When the information from thousands of shipments is cleaned, normalized, consolidated, and organized, it can provide a much clearer picture of how global transportation is being managed across the organization.
This is the foundation of Transportation Financial Intelligence, an unexpected and powerful source of information that can reshape how goods are moved across the organization.
Managing Several Types of Global Freight
Royston Goh of Teradyne is a global logistics manager who relies on Transportation Financial Intelligence to see the global picture and develop strategy accordingly. Goh has worked in logistics and transportation management for approximately 27 years. He joined Teradyne approximately five years ago.
Teradyne is a global provider of automated test equipment for semiconductors, wireless products, data-storage systems, silicon photonics, as well as collaborative and autonomous mobile robots used in manufacturing and material-handling applications.
The global logistics operation he manages for Teradyne includes inbound components moving between suppliers and manufacturing facilities, large capital equipment shipped to customers, time-sensitive spare parts, and robotics equipment.
On the inbound side, Teradyne works with factories and suppliers located primarily in Asia. Teradyne manages a complex mix of inbound and outbound transportation flows across multiple regions. These shipments move throughout Asia by air, ocean, and land.
With so many different types of freight, Teradyne needed a provider that could handle the audit and payment work without requiring Goh to review each invoice and exception himself. Teradyne has worked with nVision Global since 2012.
“They make sure there is no double invoicing and that the invoices are billed according to the agreed rates,” says Goh. “There are occasions when they spot discrepancies, and those are caught at the very beginning. As a result, we do not have to handle that part of the audit, and it has reduced the amount of manual review required by the logistics team.”
More important to Goh, however, is the visibility the data provides into the transportation operation and how he can use that information strategically. He says it allows him to identify costs, respond to disruptions, determine whether changes in strategy are producing the expected result, and manage a complex global logistics operation with a very lean internal structure.
The Personal Touch in the Age of Technology
Today, freight audit and payment is an industry driven by technology. Automation, analytics, and reporting have become more advanced, and AI is now being added to the process as well.
However, for Goh, the people supporting the system are one of the most important parts of the relationship. “If the customer support team is not good, then there is no bridge to the customer,” says Goh.
Supporting a global operation like Teradyne requires more than the ability to process an invoice from another country. The customer needs people who understand the regional carriers, languages, currencies, tax requirements, and business practices, and who are available during the same working hours.
For this reason, nVision Global operates through regional offices and uses multilingual personnel to support customers in the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.
For more information, contact nVision Global at: email: contact@nvisionglobal.com, visit www.nvisionglobal.com.