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Inbound Freight Compliance

Inbound freight management that builds each routing guide violation from both sides' records, argues the supplier's side first, and leaves each charge to two named people.

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The problem

The email that excuses the supplier sits in your own routing desk's sent box

A supplier ships a freight-collect order prepaid on its own carrier and adds the freight to its invoice, or sends the advance ship notice after the truck has left. Accounts payable holds the invoice, and an analyst pulls the purchase order, the load, the bill of lading, the notice and a rate into a spreadsheet and emails a chargeback.

That charge is built from the TMS alone. The routing request sits in the supplier portal, the desk's late reply in a mailbox, the notice's real send time in the EDI envelope, and the fuel table may be the wrong week's. The supplier holds the email that proves the buyer's miss and disputes, and good charges are lost with the weak ones. Nobody counts the desk's own misses, so suppliers stop trusting the program.

Built forInbound logistics analystsInbound transportation managersRouting desk coordinatorsAccounts payable teams

The Problem Today

An analyst charges a supplier from the TMS alone, and the supplier answers with an email the analyst never saw.

Pieced together from five systems

  • PO changes
  • Desk reply
  • TMS loads
  • EDI notices
  • Late desk replies go unseenProof of the buyer's own miss stays in a mailbox
  • A supplier email sways the chargeA note changes the outcome and nobody writes down why

The Solution

  1. Records lined up from both sidesOrder, routing request, desk reply, pickup and ship notice, each cited
  2. Re-rated on the routed carrierContract rate and the pickup week's fuel table, worked to the cent
  3. The supplier's side argued firstA challenger plays the supplier, against the agents' own draft too
  4. Analyst decides, manager signsCoded and explained per line, then signed once the evidence is open

Built-in controls

  • Suppliers open the same documents the charge relies on
  • A person opens supplier free text before any deduction
  • Nobody signs a charge line they decided

What You Get

Each charge reaches the supplier with its evidence, after the buyer's own misses are found and dropped.

  • Routing desk misses countedLate replies land on the desk's own measure
  • Rulings proposed as rulesThey apply only once the manager approves
  • Deductions on accepted chargesAccounts payable posts only what the supplier accepted
Features

Inbound freight management features that build a chargeback both sides read

The inbound logistics analyst, the transportation manager and the routing desk use them to charge back a routing guide violation on evidence the supplier can open. The screens follow one off-routed cushion-fabric shipment.

demoThe shipper, its suppliers and carriers, the staff and every amount are sample data.

  1. 01Agents reading

    Supplier chargeback built in view, with a check the analyst adds mid-run

    • Each agent's plan, sources and confidence on screen. The analyst can trace any conclusion to the passage an agent read and the agent it came from.
    • A steer box that changes the plan mid-run. Asking for a supplier's recent routing replies adds a step under the analyst's name, so the agents look where experience says to look.
  2. 02Both sides

    Routing guide violation case, point by point, beside the supplier's view

    • Each point opposite the evidence that settles it. The analyst checks any point against its source in one click before a line is charged.
    • The supplier's wording on the same row. The analyst reads each point as the supplier will in the portal, so nothing is charged on facts the supplier cannot see.
    • The buyer's own miss labeled on its row. The analyst sees the buyer's own lateness before deciding a charge line that rests on it.
  3. 03Desk reply

    Routing desk reply timed from its email headers against the one-day promise

    • Reply time read from the message headers. A routing reply sent only by email still gets a time, so a late answer from the desk cannot hide outside the portal.
    • The supplier's chase email in the same case. When the supplier asked the desk again before shipping, as the guide tells it to, that email sits beside the reply.
  4. 04Routed cost

    Routed LTL carrier re-rated by class, contract discount and pickup-week fuel

    • Freight class worked from density. Weight, pallets and dimensions on the shipping paper give the class, so the routed cost rests on what actually moved.
    • Fuel surcharge from the pickup week's table. Each week's diesel average and band are shown, so a pricing analyst can confirm the week the guide calls for.
    • Extra freight as billed minus routed cost. The charge follows the guide's own remedy clause to the cent, with the administrative fee added only where the clause sets one.
  5. 05Challenger

    Vendor routing guide dispute argued from the supplier's side before any charge

    • The supplier's likely arguments raised first. The analyst meets each dispute before the supplier writes it, answered from the records or handed over as a call to make.
    • The drafting agents' own math checked. The challenger tests the draft too and the cost calculator re-runs in view, so a pricing slip is fixed before a supplier finds it.
  6. 06Decision

    Charge or drop each line, coded and explained, beside earlier rulings

    • Each choice played forward. Before deciding, the analyst sees whether the supplier holds a document that would win a dispute, and what the desk measure will record.
    • Earlier rulings shown beside the choice. Past drops for the same kind of desk miss sit above the buttons, so like cases get like answers across suppliers.
    • Nothing pre-filled. The analyst picks the code and writes the why, and it stays the maker's proposal until a second person signs.
  7. 07Sign-off

    Second signature only once the manager has opened the desk email and the 856

    • Signing locked until the evidence is opened. The manager signs what they have read, and the trail shows the document opened ahead of the signature.
    • A stated meaning on each signature. Signing confirms the evidence supports a remedy under the supply agreement; it never finds that a supplier broke the law.
    • Other cases waiting for the same signer. The manager clears each proposed line from one list, with the analyst's decision, reason and the document to open beside it.
  8. 08Supplier portal

    Supplier compliance chargebacks answered in fixed fields on the portal

    • The documents the buyer relies on, shared. The supplier checks the pickup record, the desk email and a routed cost statement, while the carrier's contract rate stays internal.
    • Accept, or dispute with a document. A dispute without a document is refused, so answers arrive in a form the routing log agent can test against the records.
    • A typed note waits for a human reader. The supplier's own words never move a charge and block the deduction until someone at the buyer opens them.
  9. 09Desk measure

    Routing desk late replies counted on the desk's own on-time measure

    • Email-only replies added to the measure. A reply found only in a mailbox still counts against the desk, so suppliers see the program measure the buyer too.
    • The cause of each miss recorded. The coordinator records why a reply ran late, beside the case it cost the buyer.

Four desks between a supplier's invoice and a deduction it has accepted

The analyst decides, the manager signs, the routing desk answers for its own replies, and accounts payable posts only what the supplier has seen.

Inbound logistics analysts

Building and deciding each charge line, and sending the signed case to the supplier

  • Cases built from portal, email, TMS and EDI
  • The supplier's arguments before the supplier makes them
  • Earlier rulings beside each decision
Inbound transportation managers

The second signature, holds and releases, learned rules and settings

  • Each line's documents, opened before signing
  • Rules proposed from their own rulings
  • Fee and clock changes held for approval
Routing desk coordinators

Answering routing requests within the one-business-day promise

  • Open requests ordered by their reply clock
  • Late replies timed from email, counted once
  • A place to record why a reply was late
Accounts payable specialists

Applying routing deductions in the payment run

  • Five conditions checked before any deduction
  • Charges the supplier accepted in fixed fields
  • Holds that block a deduction at once

A desk reply after pickup, a wrong fuel week, a notice that never waited

Three findings a charge built from the TMS alone would have missed on this one case, before the routing charge was dropped.

The desk replied after the truck had left

The routing reply came 18 h 28 m after the one-day promise and 1 h 25 m after pickup, the morning after the supplier had chased it by email.

Fuel priced on the delivery week

The first draft used 27.3% from the delivery week; the pickup week's 30.3% moved the draft from $836.30 to $822.20.

A ship notice that never waited on routing

The notice named the supplier's own carrier and went out 3 h 00 m after pickup, so the $100.00 fee stood on its own.

demoSample data, from the working solution.

The agents

Six agents build and argue each case, and none of them decides a charge line

Each hands its work on by name; the analyst and the manager decide.

Purchase order reader

Reads the purchase order, its revisions and its freight terms.

  • Never decides whether a PO change excuses a supplier
Routing log agent

Lines up the routing request, the desk's reply timed from its headers, the supplier's follow-up, the pickup and the ship notice.

  • Never judges the routing desk
  • Never changes a record
Cost calculator

Re-rates the shipment on the routed carrier's contract for the pickup date, to the cent.

  • Never rounds before the end
  • Never uses a rate it cannot cite
Case writer

Writes the buyer's points, and the same points as the supplier will read them.

  • Never writes a point without a source
  • Never says a supplier broke the law
Challenger

Argues the supplier's side: late desk, PO change, wrong rate, gateway delay, a held notice, carrier availability.

  • Never calls anyone dishonest
  • Cannot be skipped by a steer
Portal liaison

Sends the signed case with fixed reply fields and reads the supplier's answer.

  • Never sends before the manager signs
  • Never scores free text
Around the case

Violations queue, guide rules, scorecards and deductions for the routing team

The manager, the buyer and accounts payable work from these screens around the open case.

Violations queueOpen cases by supplier, violation, proposed amount, stage, agent confidence and days left on the notice clock. The manager builds or assigns them in bulk.
Routing guide read into rulesThe guide's clauses become checkable rules, each naming the records it reads. A new pallet-height rule sits as proposed until the manager approves it.
Rule learned from rulingsFrom the manager's own drops when the desk was late, the agents propose a rule and a desk measure. Nothing changes until the manager approves.
Supplier scorecardsEach supplier's violations, charges and on-time notices sit beside how often the buyer's desk replied late to it, ready for the quarterly review.
Deduction conditionsFive conditions gate the deduction. Signed and sent are met; the invoice stays on hold until the supplier accepts in the fixed fields.
Audit trailOpened documents, decisions, signatures and the send, by person or agent, with the why and what each signer vouched for. A binder per case exports too.

demoSample data, from the working solution.

A charge, a hold release or a supplier block stays with named people

The agents read, rate and argue. Whatever touches a supplier's money or standing waits for a person, and loosening a control waits for two.

Each charge line is the analyst's callThe agents propose; the analyst charges or drops it and writes why.
The second signer opens the evidence firstNobody signs a line they decided, and a send-back or a reopen clears the signatures.
Holds apply at once; releases need the managerA buyer can hold a supplier's chargebacks immediately, and whoever placed a hold cannot lift it.
Blocking or reporting a supplier takes two peopleThe transportation manager decides with the buyer as second person, and records a reason.
Clocks and fees change only with approvalThe administrator proposes, and the change applies once the manager approves it.

What logistics directors ask about inbound freight management

What is inbound freight management?

Inbound freight management is how a shipper that buys freight collect controls the carriers its suppliers use, through a routing guide and a routing desk. This solution enforces that guide: it builds each violation into a case both sides can read, and people decide each charge.

How are routing guide violations charged back to suppliers?

The guide sets the remedy: the extra freight over the routed cost, an administrative fee, and a fee for a late advance ship notice. The agents re-rate the routed carrier and draft each line; the analyst decides and the manager signs before the supplier sees it.

What if our own routing desk replied late?

The routing log agent times the desk's reply from the email headers, the challenger argues that the miss excuses the shipment, and the analyst decides. The late reply is counted on the desk's own measure either way.

How does a supplier dispute a chargeback?

In the supplier portal: accept, or dispute by attaching a document and picking a code. The routing log agent compares the document with the records, and a note typed by the supplier goes to someone at the buyer to read.

Does the supplier see our carrier rates?

No. The supplier gets a routed cost statement with the lane, the freight, the routed carrier, the pickup date and the amount. The contract rate and the fuel table stay internal.

Does it work with our vendor compliance program and TMS?

It reads the TMS, the ERP, the EDI gateway, the supplier portal and the desk's email, and works the violations your vendor compliance program raises. Routing and booking stay in the TMS.

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Bring a chargeback
a supplier disputed.

We will rebuild one of your disputed routing cases with you from both sides' records, starting with the routing desk's reply.

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