FREIGHT AUDIT PAYMENT\\\


Issue 8 2017 - FBJNA


27


Information: the most valuable commodity of all


Freight audit and pay (FAP) specialist, enVista is moving its activities


further up the


supply chain to improve visibility for its clients and offering even more useful information, says Dominic McGough, managing partner at enVista for the EMEA and APAC regions. EnVista


believes it can


increase its competitive edge over providers of transport management systems, many of which do provide some form of freight audit function. However, McGough points out that a TMS can only audit what is in the TMS, and for example, won’t necessarily pick up courier shipments booked by the firm’s receptionist or cover smaller locations that are not covered by the TMS. McGough continues:


“We’re identifying the costs associated with shipments early on. We see a distinct requirement for data, and if


anything, it’s the increasing,


so we’ve made a lot of investments this year into increasing


visibility of


data. We’ve built interfaces within the shipping portals like GT Nexus, INTTRA and CargoSmart, so we can get more information at the point of booking or shipment.” In the case of ocean freight, this means that


information


can be input anything from 10 to 30 days before arrival, McGough explains. “Suddenly, it becomes very valuable information.” Using enVista also avoids


the need for the client to interrogate several shipping line portals or systems and allows them to build up so much accurate information “that they can virtually self-bill for shipments”. The enVista system also together all the many


pulls


different invoices from hauliers, handlers, customs brokers and so on to give a true landed cost for the shipment. All this information has


also spurred clients to ask for benchmarking services, and while enVista will not


divulge information from other companies, it can share aggregated data and provide clients with a true like-for like analysis of its shipping costs. The latter is important because rates charged by shipping lines vary tremendously according to the volumes being shipped, the commodity or the time of year – by a factor of 100% or more. As a business guru once


famously said, “You get not what you deserve but what you negotiate”, and for the tech- savvy there is a vast amount of data now available, if only you know how to interpret and it, and act accordingly. There is another aspect


to the data boom, McGough points out. “There are many freight audit and pay companies, and perhaps the freight service providers are getting a little tired of having to work with so many. They’re being asked to provide all sorts of information, such as quantities, colours, numbers of items on a pallet or in a carton, and a lot of this isn’t strictly freight information – so they may at some stage push back at FAP firms.” This might ultimately


result in a rationalisation in the number of FAP providers. Also, enVista, through its Trading Partner management suite, can pull in data from a much wider range of courses, and doesn’t only have to rely on the carriers. McGough adds: “Another


advantage of enVista’s data is because the spot market for ocean freight is very active, clients need to know now which way rates are moving, not in two weeks’ time, as would be the case with a TMS. With slow steaming, the ships may not move very quickly these days, but


freight rates


certainly do.” Yes, much of this data is


around somewhere, he says, but the problem for the shipper is sifting through it and trying to sort out the reliable from the less reliable, while all the time trying to ensure that they are


indeed comparing apples with apples. Meanwhile, although some


stability has returned to the ocean shipping market,


it could be short lived, in McGough’s opinion. New ships are still being built in Asian yards, many of them at very low prices, and as most


of them are 20,000teu-plus monsters, which can only be deployed on the Asia/Europe trades (US ports for the most part haven’t been enlarged enough to handle them), they could in turn displace smaller, older ships onto other routes such as the Trans-Pacific. Freight rate data can also be


DATA MOVES THE WORLD


provided for airfreight. Here, clearly, there is little scope for pre-arrival analysis, but what enVista can do is analyse the cost and, where appropriate, suggest alternatives such as sea-air or the new China to Europe rail services that have sprung up in the past few years.


What you do with it makes the difference.


As an innovative global company with over 50 years of experience, we have the tools, technology, and expertise to improve effi ciency and controls. Our focus is to provide you with clean, normalized data within our powerful Data2InformSM


Business


Intelligence Tool — ready to analyze, ready to solve, ready to save you money.


DATA2LOGISTICS.COM • SALES@DATA2LOGISTICS.COM • 646.450.9196


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