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Reweighs are a ubiquitous part of LTL.
LTL carriers have scales mounted on most, if not all, their forklifts and thus have the opportunity to verify the weights of pallets every time they are loaded and unloaded. It is all too common for the shipper’s BOL to list a different weight than what the LTL carrier finds with their scales.
But while reweighs are a very normal occurrence, it is also common for a shipper to not even realize they have a reweigh problem.
This is problematic for the shipper as it means they are failing to pass on the full transportation costs to their customers. If the reweighs taking place are tacking on 5% extra on the freight bills, that is a 5% impact the shipper is absorbing without realizing it.
So how does this happen?
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The Accounts Payable department paying the freight bills may not be communicating back to the shipping department that reweighs are occurring. This lack of communication and awareness can be quite costly.
Reweighs are frequently noticed during the freight bill payment process because there is a line item on the invoice for a reweigh fee. Every LTL carrier has a rule in their tariff specifying how a fee will be applied when a reweigh occurs.
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In some cases, that distinct line item with a fee is not applied to the invoice. This can occur if the shipper has negotiated and received a waiver of the reweigh fee, or if the LTL carrier chooses not to apply their published reweigh fee. At least one major carrier does this.
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While the reweigh fee is designed to compensate LTL carriers for the scales they purchase and the labor required to reweigh shipments and correct invoices, LTL carriers can be comfortable forgoing this fee since they get compensated for increasing the shipment weight when a reweigh occurs.
Let’s take a look at how this works:
In the example above, the shipper’s BOL listed a weight of 919 pounds. The carrier reweighed the shipment and found a weight of 985 pounds, a 66-pound difference.
The reweigh added about $14 to the freight charges, which is not a lot, but the total invoice charges were about 7% higher due to the reweigh.
(Note that there is no single line item charge on the invoice that indicates a reweigh took place. The carrier computed the line haul charges based upon the higher 985-pound weight but did not list a separate line item with a reweigh fee.)
When the shipper’s Accounts Payable department sees this invoice, they are unaware that a reweigh occurred. The only indication on the invoice that a reweigh occurred is the line near the bottom where this carrier was kind enough to note that a W&R certificate was available.
What can a shipper do to ensure they are aware of LTL carrier reweigh applications?
It’s quite simple: use a quality TMS.
First, your TMS should retain your original quotes for each shipment. Each quote contains the shipping weight listed on the original BOL.
Next, your TMS should have adequate audit capabilities so that it can not only flag shipments that have an unexpected line item charge like a reweigh fee but also flag situations where the BOL weight does not match the LTL carrier invoice weight.
Last, your quality TMS should allow you to see all discrepancies and reweigh applications easily in one place.
This article was collaboratively written by “LTL Observers” - a collective of industry veterans spanning the carrier, shipper, 3PL, and tech provider spaces who are willing to share their opinions.
These opinions may not always be right, but the intent is to promote critical thinking and engagement that moves the LTL industry forward so that our tomorrow is always better than our today.