To ensure demo materials reached sales reps on time, this company always used First Overnight. We asked what the impact would be if they switched to standard overnight and the package was held at the FedEx DC in the morning for pickup.
The cost-benefit analysis was eye-opening. They made the change, and the reps were minimally impacted.
Although this manufacturing company was self-insured, the data that Cass collected from invoice files showed that employees were still spending $600,000 per year by insuring individual packages.
We were able to pinpoint the bulk of the problem to a few locations. Through training and ongoing monitoring, 95% of the expense was eliminated.
With another client, not long after our relationship began, we noticed that they had over 100 open but inactive accounts. Each inactive account cost $18 per week in service charges, adding up to $110,000 annually. With the client’s approval, Cass contacted the carrier to close the accounts.
As companies often do, this Cass client had provided an account number to a third party to use to ship packages related to the client’s business. Using a standard Cass report that highlights potentially fraudulent activity, our client realized that the third party was shipping much more than was approved.
Their account manager at Cass generated a report showing all past shipments where the account number was misused, the cost of which came to $60,000. We assisted our client in earning a refund from the carrier and rebilling the third party.
When systems go into production for new clients, a few problems usually jump out almost immediately. Often, one of these is a history of paying late fees.
The first few invoices we received for a manufacturing client all had hefty late fees. Inquiring with the carrier, we discovered that our customer had unknowingly spent $140,000 on late fees in a 14-month period. Because these charges are typically hidden in the invoice, the client asked for and received a refund.
Cass’ automated system can spot discrepancies when it matches manifest data to billing information. For one client, the data that Cass collected from both sources highlighted a mistake by a warehouse manager who had received a ‘deal’ on some boxes.
The result of this deal was that the new (and larger) boxes were causing 2lb shipments to be dimmed to 15lbs, costing $5 more per shipment than they realized. This discovery prevented 10,000 additional and costly shipments.
When its parcel carrier announced a General Rate Increase of 4%, this high-volume shipper budgeted for a 4% increase in its parcel costs. But, in reviewing the client’s shipping mix, Cass realized that its actual rate increase would be 7%. Cass and the client worked with the carrier to secure a net 4% increase overall – resulting in an annual savings of $900,000.
While visibility reveals opportunities to act upon, audit savings happen every day, automatically. A new global client was shocked to see 5% audit findings on their intra-European parcel shipments. In this unique case, part of the problem was that the shipper had poor rate agreements. Cass helped convert them into air-tight contracts.
