Freight payment companies are often overlooked by businesses. The often-held belief that outsourcing oversight is just one more bill to pay, prevents many companies from saving a good deal of money. It is true, when in-house talent can manage a service, the company may save a portion of money that would be paid to a third-party, but in most cases, adequate talent is not present for the job, especially when it comes to freight payment.

UPS and FedEx both conduct excellent, nearly flawless business for their customers; neither company rose to the top of the industry because of poor quality work. Still, companies who make the prudent business decision and hire a third party freight payment company will recoup more money than they expect. Some businesses choose to avoid the payment company, conducting shipping surveys themselves, but the choice may, in fact, cost them money instead of saving it.

On one hand, a company that hires an employee to devote all of his or her time to freight tracking will probably pay the individual more money in wages than they will recoup through FedEx and UPS audits. If a company tries to incorporate such a task into existing employee routines, their reduced productivity will have a negative impact on business.

In contrast, companies who choose the third party option quickly find they have nothing to lose. Freight payment companies collect only on savings. For each successful audit, the third-party company recovers a percentage of the reimbursement, sending the rest back to the shipper of origin.

Because the audits result in refunded fees, the originator of the shipment only stands to recover lost funds. Without the shipping audits, no money is recovered; with audits, money is recovered, and the outside source takes a portion of the funds to cover the cost of their service. On the one hand, the hiring company makes no money back. On the other hand, they make most of the money back while still employing an extra service. If a freight auditor collects fees beyond their audits, they should not be contracted with, but most companies do not operate in this manner.