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While most people know that freight claim management is time consuming, do you realize how much time you or your staff are really spending managing freight claims?

Here are the top 7 ways that freight claim management eats up your time. At the end, we’ll provide some free tips and resources to help you save time on freight claim management.

 

#7 Freight Claim Time Waster: Filing

This is the obvious time factor. It typically takes 2 – 3 hours to manually file a freight claim. This includes the time spent entering the data and appending supporting documents, submitting the freight claim form to the carrier, and organizing the data in your own freight claim filing system. You probably also spend time looking for the proper form, since each carrier requires their own specific freight claim form.

#6 Freight Claim Time Waster: Data & Document Gathering

This is the time that you spend on any of the following tasks:
• Calculating losses
• Finding repair quotes
• Looking for supporting documents (eg bill of lading, delivery receipt)
• Taking photographs of the damages

#5 Freight Claim Time Waster: Filing, Again

Have you ever submitted a freight claim only to have the carrier send it back due to missing information? Since it may have been a month or more since you last looked at the freight claim, you’ll need to spend additional time looking up the information in order to re-file the claim.

#4 Freight Claim Time Waster: Carrier Follow-Up

As much as everyone might like to send off their freight claims and have the money magically appear in their bank accounts, it doesn’t always work this way. Unfortunately, it is often necessary to follow up with the carrier to ensure that the freight claims get paid. Consider the time spent on these carrier follow-up tasks:
• Looking up what freight claims have gone unpaid
• Writing diplomatic freight claim reminder letters to the carrier
• Calling the carrier multiple times before you get a response

#3 Freight Claim Time Waster: Dealing with Damaged Shipments

When a shipment comes in damaged, you’ll need to deal with it. Consider how much time you spend on the following:
• Sorting damaged product from the rest of the shipment
• Testing product to determine if it is damaged or not
• Repackaging product to be sent back to the shipper
• Disposing of damaged product

#2 Freight Claim Time Waster: Meetings & Errands

Once you file a freight claim, you’ll find yourself running off to extra errands and meetings, such as:
• Meeting with the carrier’s inspector
• Taking damaged product in for repair
• Having damaged product appraised for salvage value

#1 Freight Claim Time Waster: Managing Unhappy Clients

If you shipped a product to a client and it was damaged by your carrier, your client may perceive this as poor service on your part. If it wasn’t just your internal team who was expecting the product, you’ll need to take the time to make things right with any unsatisfied clients.

How to Save Time on Freight Claim Management

Spending some amount of time on freight claims is inevitable. But here are some tips and free resources to make freight claim management easier:
• For some tasks, you can claim labor as a cost on your freight claim.
• Download a generic freight claim form so you can use one form that works for every carrier
• Download freight claim reminder letter templates so when you need to send a carrier a reminder, you don’t have to start from scratch
• Consider using freight claim software to streamline your filing processes, reducing filing time from 2-3 hours per claim, to 10 minutes per claim

 

About TranSolutions
TranSolutions Inc has been helping shippers and 3PLs more effectively and efficiently manage their freight claims since 1996. They pride themselves in providing cutting edge technology and exceptional customer service. They are also pleased to offer free freight claim filing tips, advice, and resources at www.transolutionsinc.com/blog

For more information about their software or for a free demo, visit www.transolutionsinc.com

 

By Vanessa Glavac – Logistics Writer for TranSolutions Inc.