The Logistics of Logistics The 5 Billion Dollar Overcharge with Steve Ferreira
Steve Ferreira and Joe Lynch discuss the 5 billion dollar overcharge which refers to the amount that ocean shippers are overcharged every year. Steve is well recognized expert in ocean freight auditing and in the interview, he describes the problem of ocean freight overcharges and ways to recapture the difference.
About Steve FerreiraSteve Ferreira is the founder and CEO of Ocean Audit. Steve has spent his entire career in global container shipping. He established Ocean Audit in 1994 when he realized general freight audit practices reverse no more than 50% of overcharges occurring in ocean transportation. Today, Steve's process is leading edge and utilizes machine learning to identify and validate ocean freight invoice errors. Initial recovery validation can be accomplished with only a very basic requested client-side report. Steve Ferreira is often featured in leading business publications like USA Today, Journal of Commerce, and as a guest commentator on CNBC.
About Ocean AuditOcean Audit is the leader in ocean freight invoice auditing. Ocean freight billing is very complex, and few shippers fully understand all the charges. As a result of this complexity, ocean freight shippers are commonly overcharged. Ocean Audit and Steve Ferreira specialize in ocean freight auditing. Ocean Audit uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to identify invoice inaccuracies and overcharges. Ocean Audit utilizes its expertise on a contingency only basis, which means Steve only gets paid if he discovers a saving.
Key Takeaways - 5 Billion Dollar Overcharge The Problem with Ocean Freight Invoices- In Steve's experience, ocean freight invoices are usually inaccurate. The average high-volume ocean freight shipper is overcharged by 1-2% with some shippers getting overcharged by much more.
- Ocean freight invoices are very complex and there are few supply chain people who have the time and or expertise required to audit the invoices. Auditing of the ocean freight invoices frequently falls in a gap somewhere between accounting and the supply chain group.
- Ocean freight invoicing is often very antiquated and technology improvements implemented are far behind the truckload and LTL modes.
- The top five reasons ocean freight invoices are inaccurate:
- Double billing (the ocean freight provider may double bill when they discover a surcharge not added to the freight bill).
- Date cusp issues
- Fuel surcharges
- Not checking container numbers
- Contract complexity
- Shippers can conduct their own ocean freight auditing; however, they would need to hire an internal resource that would have a deep understanding of ocean freight auditing. This specialized knowledge is not easily found.
- Shippers can also hire a pre-auditing firm, which is a 3rd party company that audits the freight bills prior to the shipper paying the invoice. Since most pre-auditing firms specialize in over the road trucking freight audit, they may lack the knowledge required to conduct an effective ocean freight audit.
- For many ocean freight shippers, the right audit solution is a company that specializes in ocean freight auditing. Ocean freight auditing is too complex to hire a firm that just dabbles in the space – hire a specialist.
- Ocean freight shippers hire Steve Ferreira because he has over 40,000 hours of expertise in all areas of ocean freight invoicing and dispute management. Steve is the world's leading expert in recovery auditing for the container shipping industry.
- Ocean Audit is the only international company specializing in all aspects of ocean freight recovery.