New App Launched This Year Audits Fedex and UPS
Marshfield, WI (OnFocus) Since 2000, manufacturing companies have depended on local business Customodal to assist them with their freight and shipping needs.
“Our typical client is a manufacturing company that makes a product requiring raw materials shipped into the factory and finished product shipped out,” said founder and owner Mike Eberl. “We engineer and execute the optimal freight transportation of those raw materials and finished products for clients to minimize their costs.”
For example, a client that makes windows would utilize Customodal to route raw materials into their manufacturing facility.
“We have to help that customer route into their factory the wood for the frames, metal for the frames, fasteners and hardware, and the glass. All of that has to come to the factory,” said Eberl. “When the windows are done, they have to be shipped to the distributors, wholesalers, retailers, and increasingly direct to the end-user.”
Modern businesses typically do not have deep logistics experience on staff anymore, and as the process has become more complicated and expensive, so many businesses rely on the talent and experience of a logistics company to assist.
“We’ve become a professional service, much like an attorney or an accountant,” said Eberl. “We’re a resource that helps shippers save time and money in ways they aren’t aware of.”
New this year, the company has developed an app to help even more local businesses with their shipping needs.
Called OPTIX, the product audits parcels shipped via UPS, FedEx and DHL to ensure that companies are not being charged incorrectly.
Approximately 1-2% of parcels shipped via UPS or FedEx contain an error. The OPTIX software audits on 40 different audit points that are potential errors and then automatically files a refund claim from the shipping company for the incorrect costs.
Eberl explained the two most common errors:
A customer is billed incorrectly from the negotiated rate tariff.
There is a discrepancy between the shipping paid for and the shipping received (For example, if a customer paid for 2-day shipping, but the product took longer to arrive.)
“When you’re shipping a lot, you’re honestly not watching it,” said Eberl, adding that the app allows Customodal to expand the businesses they can help.
“This new product broadens our client capabilities beyond the manufacturing world,” said Eberl. “If you’re doing 100 shipments a month, you’re likely to get 1-2 refunds a month. If you’re shipping 25,000 units, then suddenly that’s real money.”
With the average parcel shipment cost between $8-$15, the savings can add up. Additionally, Customodal does not charge customers to join the service — they only charge a percentage of any refunds received.
“We charge a contingent fee. We don’t charge to be on the system,” explained Eberl. “We charge a portion of what we actually recover for clients.”
Whether a medical specimen lab or a company that sells over the Internet, this app can help recover costs lost to incorrect shipping bills. Clients that have joined are seeing results.
“It’s one of those things where I wonder why someone hasn’t been doing it longer,” said Eberl. “The biggest challenge is that it seems too good to be true. To that, I say ‘try it, what do you have to lose?’ We automated the whole thing and literally when a client gets on the program, there’s nothing for them to install. They share their credentials with us, our system runs the audit on every shipment, and automatically submits the claim for a refund.”
Beyond the refunds, the app also provides extensive tools that allow clients to track shipping, monitor costs, and run shipping reports.
“Every Monday, we provide a summary to the customer. They also get a portal login, but every week we do a summary. We show them all of the refunds that they have collected (they go straight to them) and we generate an invoice for our share of them,” said Eberl.
Call Customodal or visit App.customodal.com/prospectus to watch a video on the service and even try a sample audit.
Author: News Desk
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