Product

Solution

Resources

Company

Partners

Back

Best Practices

3-5% of parcel spend is hiding in carrier invoice errors

Carrier invoices land every week, yet 3-5% of the dollars you pay are pure leakage that could be clawed back with a basic audit.

Rabot

Content Contributor

Jul 2, 2025

Carrier invoices land every week, yet 3-5% of the dollars you pay are pure leakage that could be clawed back with a basic audit. For a fulfilment operator or 3PL that ships $4 million in small‑package freight a year, that silent leak is roughly $120,000 of margin slipping out the door.

Why do invoices go wrong?

The benchmark data shows five repeat offenders:

  1. Dim‑weight or re‑weigh overrides when package dimensions are wrong or missing.

  2. Address corrections and zone miscoding.

  3. Oversize and additional‑handling fees on heavy or long packages.

  4. Missing or late scan events such as un‑manifested labels.

  5. Return‑label and reverse‑logistics relabels.

Each of these errors converts into $1‑$100 per parcel, with the sweet spot in the $3‑$40 range.

What 3‑5% looks like on your P&L

A mid‑size shipper in the benchmark study lost $127K a year plus nine hours of staff time every month chasing adjustments and still only recovered 23% of the money owed.

Back‑of‑napkin math:
At‑risk spend = Annual parcel spend × 0.03 (use the lower end to stay conservative)
Potential recovery = At‑risk spend × 0.70 recovery rate

Run the numbers against your own parcel budget and the upside becomes hard to ignore.

Four fast fixes to reclaim the cash

Quick win

What to do

Payback signal

Capture perfect dims & weight

Install an automated parcel dimensioner at pack‑out

Hardware typically pays back in under six months

Audit freight invoices

Use in‑house scripts or a third‑party audit partner to dispute every error

Treat the recovered 3-5% as free money

Block bad labels at source

Add preship validation rules in WMS/TMS for dimensions, weight and address

Prevents fees before they appear on the invoice

Tighten contract language

Negotiate refund windows and caps on accessorial mark‑ups once volume justifies it

Locks long term savings into your carrier agreements

Ready to stop the bleed?

  • Run a free carrier adjustment health check: we’ll screen last month’s invoice for error patterns.

  • See the evidence engine live: take a 10‑minute demo of Rabot’s video‑backed invoice dispute tool.


Improve process control to increase team productivity

Let’s help you save on QA and inspection costs.

Improve process control to increase team productivity

Let’s help you save on QA and inspection costs.

Improve process control to increase team productivity

Let’s help you save on QA and inspection costs.

Product

Solution

Resources

Company

Partners