FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

When it comes to freight management, we’re the experts. If you have a question, we can answer it. Below are some of our most frequently asked questions and answers.

Have another question? Fill out the form below and you’ll get your answer.

3PL stands for third-party logistics. 3PL providers offer a variety of outsourced logistics services to their customers, including inventory, storage, distribution, transportation, and fulfillment. They enable their customers to accomplish large-scale business projects without needing to retain all of that specialized talent in-house. By leveraging existing relationships with multiple service providers throughout the global supply chain, 3PL providers can often achieve significant savings that their individual customers would not be able to obtain on their own.

There are many different kinds of freight shipment options available to most shippers, including Full Truckload (FTL), Less Than Truckload (LTL), and Parcel. FTL shipments typically take up an entire truck or shipping container and are priced by the full shipping unit. LTL shipments can be anything from two packages to the majority of space in a shared truckload or container, and are often spread across multiple vehicles or carriers in order to find optimal per-segment pricing. Parcel shipments typically refer to smaller individual deliveries — think Amazon, FedEx, or UPS.

A Transportation Management System (TMS) is an online freight scheduling and shipping system that enables a client to manage order fulfillment, shipping, carrier communications, invoicing, claims, and customer service all within the same interconnected digital application. Target Freight’s clients can access our proprietary TMS through API calls, which enable them to create custom links and applications that help their customers track orders and maintain greater visibility of their supply chain.

We work with every new TFM client to assess their needs and propose the right suite of services to help streamline their shipping process and save them time and money at every step along the way. While every client’s custom onboarding process is different, our clients are typically up and running confidently on our TMS in just a few weeks, and seeing measurable freight savings within the first 30 days. You can learn more about our transportation management system here.

Yes, our TMS can be customized to integrate with a shipper’s existing ERP system to ensure full visibility and shared data access at every point in the process.

Target Freight works with all the major providers within the LTL and Parcel space as well as thousands of FTL carriers throughout North America, which ensures that our clients always enjoy competitive pricing for all of their freight needs.

In short, freight auditing means properly accounting for every package you send, from order and shipping through delivery and payment. It is the process of reviewing all paperwork for a shipment in order to ensure that all units were delivered, all carrier pricing agreements were adhered to, any claims or additional fees that were assessed are accepted and/or disputed, and that all revenues and expenses are processed under the correct billing codes.

The two biggest benefits of using freight auditing and payment services are saving time and saving money. You can save hundreds or hours and tens of thousands of dollars on shipping and reporting year after year. We audit your bills before payment for accuracy, reduce your administrative accounting expenses and manage your payment and logistics data within the same auditing system. Automation reduces mistakes. Any “red flags” noted by the technology are then checked by our team. Learn more about our freight auditing and payment services here.

Yes, one of our client service representatives will be happy to work with you to get you quickly and painlessly onboarded with our freight auditing and payment services. Getting all of your carriers converted to use our system typically takes 30-45 days. During this process, you will provide us with your current carrier rates and agreements, shipping locations, business rules, etc. We will provide you with a letter to send to your carriers notifying them of the change in billing address. We will also coordinate all communications with your carriers to receive electronic (EDI) invoices.

Once everything is set up, you can use our online freight auditing and payment service to start creating queries and running customized reports in just a few minutes. All of your information is kept confidential in our secure system. And if you have any questions, your client service representative is happy to help.

Every freight carrier has their own criteria for what makes a customer a “preferred shipper,” but earning this status is generally the result of a shipper following a carrier’s best practices. This typically includes having a clear understanding of the types and volumes of freight that a carrier prefers to transport, submitting a fully complete request for quote (RFQ) which includes all relevant information that a carrier needs to quickly and accurately price a shipment bid, responding to questions and customer service concerns swiftly and comprehensively, and other practices that help carriers save time and reduce complications. Working with a 3PL like Target Freight gives our clients the inside track to becoming preferred shippers at the thousands of carriers we work with, which helps ensure their shipments will be managed for optimal turnaround.

WANT TO LEARN MORE?

Don’t see a question or answer you’re looking for?
Fill out this form to get a conversation started.

Bottom Contact Form

Section