Prospectus showcases potential savings found within FedEx®, UPS® and DHL® shipping invoices within minutes.
The intent of this article is to introduce you to Prospectus, and provide guidance on how to best use this new service as a sales and marketing tool.
Pro tip
Potential refunds are detailed within interactive charts and graphs, downloadable reports, and more, all with your company’s branding.
Use Prospectus as a selling tool
Prospectus is beneficial for customers of all sizes. Here are a few common customer types.
Large companies. Analyzing recent invoices is more convenient than providing the login credentials to a carrier website for larger companies. Prospectus bridges the gap between corporate policy and showcasing the value as a strategic partner.
Existing providers. Any prospect that’s already working with a competitor can quickly see the refunds that you would’ve secured, and do a comparison to the work that’s being performed currently. This, in combination with a demo, is a power play.
General. It’s more compelling to act when the overspend is quantified. Prospectus showcases the money being left of the table.
Key features
- Instant. Prospectus provides fast results. The audit and resulting report is sent within minutes.
- Real data. There aren’t any placeholder numbers used here. Everything is calculated and populated using real transportation data to provide an accurate view of possible savings.
- Analyzes each shipment. Prospectus analyzes each package within the carrier invoice data provided to identify overcharges and billing errors.
What is included
Each auditing point is listed and the amount of potential savings is displayed. The next step after analysis is to ask your prospective customer to sign up for the auditing and recovery service, where disputes and claims are filed and refunds secured. Potential refunds are divided by a host of auditing points outlined below.
- Service failures. Service failures include shipments that were delivered late for reasons related to carrier network disruptions. These potential savings are commonly referred to as Money Back Guarantees.
- Manifested not shipped. Carriers charge for shipping labels printed, even those that are not used. These can be voided for a refund when not intended for use..
- Invalid Saturday surcharges. Pickups and deliveries scheduled for Saturday are charged additional fees. These fees are recoverable in the case of no action on the scheduled date.
- Invalid residential surcharges. Commercial addresses are sometimes charged additional fees reserved for residential addresses. These fees are recoverable when such fees are incorrectly applied.
- Invalid delivery area surcharges. Rural delivery zones are charged additional fees. These fees are recoverable on recent shipments when incorrectly applied.
- Invalid fuel surcharges. Fuel surcharges are applied to shipments that are delivered to residential addresses and extended delivery areas.
- Duplicate charges. Duplicate invoices, tracking numbers, and cost components occur within carrier statements..
- Invalid dimensional weight. Scanned dimensional weight adjustments that increase the rated weight of a shipment.
- Discount mistakes. This is an estimate. Performance pricing and discounts are analyzed in the full audit performed on customer accounts.
Next steps
Go to your company’s Prospectus page.
- Direct customers here or run the report yourself.