Freight billing still wastes 10 hours a week - here's why

40% of logistics professionals say billing disputes are one of their biggest time drains. That’s not surprising. Think about how often you have to chase down documents, verify rate tables, or fix a mis-coded service accessorial. Freight billing isn’t glamorous, but it eats up hours - often silently.

So if you're still spending a full workday each week untangling invoice errors, you’re not alone. But here’s the good news: it doesn’t have to be this way.

What's broken in freight billing

The core issue? Too many freight invoices still rely on manual audits. PDFs come in from carriers, rates are cross-checked in spreadsheets, and someone has to match the bill to the original BOL and rate confirmation. This process is:

• Prone to human error
• Slow and reactive
• Hard to scale as loads increase

That’s especially painful for brokers and 3PLs who manage different carrier pricing models across LTL, FTL, drayage, and parcel. A single billing discrepancy can lead to a cascade of chargebacks, delays in customer invoicing, and unexpected margin hits.

Billing friction across the industry

You're not imagining things: freight billing inefficiency is a widespread problem. A 2023 study by Transport Topics found that 27% of all freight invoices contain some error - often related to accessorial charges like detention or TONU (truck ordered not used).

According to the Journal of Commerce, billing disputes can delay settlement by an average of 14 days, straining carrier relationships and even delaying customer collections. And when pricing rules live in disconnected silos - like rate tables in emails, documents, or ERP fields - there’s no easy way to validate each invoice in real time.

For example, one mid-sized 3PL in Illinois shared with us that their billing team had to manually cross-check over 400 invoices a week, each taking 5+ minutes. That’s over 33 hours of labor weekly. And freight still got disputed.

A smarter way to handle freight billing

The fix starts with organizing the source data: BOLs, rate confirmations, accessorial rules, and carrier contracts. Once these live in a structured, searchable format, you can begin auto-validating invoice inputs.

That means:

• Auto-matching charges to contracted rates
• Flagging mismatches in real-time
• Standardizing how accessorials (layover, lumper, etc.) are applied
• Reducing reliance on email chains to clarify pricing rules

This doesn’t mean removing human oversight. Instead, it highlights the 5-10% of invoices that actually need eyes on them - while letting software validate the other 90%.

How Debales.ai helps

Debales.ai takes mountains of unstructured freight data - PDFs, spreadsheets, CSVs - and turns them into clean, trackable data layers. That includes automated document recognition for carrier invoices, BOLs, and rate confirmations.

It then cross-references these documents using logic tuned to your pricing rules, exceptions, and customer contracts. So your operations team sees instantly which invoices are good to pay, which need a flag, and which need follow-up. No more combing through inboxes or re-keying rate info from memory.

One broker using Debales.ai reduced manual billing audit time by 72%, freeing up their team to focus on higher-value exception resolution instead of data entry.

Actionable tips for logistics billing teams

If you're looking to tighten up your freight billing process, start here:

• Map your rate logic. Document how each carrier charges by lane, mode, and accessorials.
• Centralize your documents. Use a shared portal or TMS integrations to gather rate sheets, invoices, and BOLs.
• Categorize disputes. Track where errors happen most - by carrier, region, or charge type.
• Automate flagging. Use document parsing tools or platforms like Debales.ai to auto-check known rate rules.
• Benchmark. Time your billing team’s manual review process today - and set a goal for reducing it.

Billing isn't sexy, but it moves the needle

No one got into logistics because they love auditing freight invoices. But billing cleanly - and getting it right the first time - frees up cash, improves carrier trust, and lets your team focus on what really moves freight.

And when the average company audits 10+ hours of invoices each week, shaving even half that time pays off fast.

If your team’s buried in billing cleanup, there’s room to improve.