Freight Savings Case Study: $3.5M Win for Fine Art Dealer

The Challenge: Bleeding Cash Through Hidden Inefficiencies

Before partnering with Zero Down, the client’s freight operations were burdened by outdated processes and a critical lack of oversight. This led to significant and unnecessary spending. The core pain points were:

• Constant Overpayment: All shipments were processed using spot quotes, meaning the client consistently paid premium, above-market rates instead of leveraging more favorable contracted pricing.
• Undetected Errors: Without a systematic freight audit process, the company was blind to substantial overcharges. Invoiced rates were often misaligned with contracted terms, and significant fuel surcharge errors went unnoticed, leading to thousands in lost revenue.
• Manual Workload & Inefficiency: The internal logistics team was consumed by the tedious, manual task of auditing invoices and entering shipment data, diverting their focus from strategic operational duties and creating an error-prone workflow.
• Zero Visibility: The combination of manual processes and billing inaccuracies resulted in a complete lack of visibility into their true transportation costs, eroding confidence and making strategic planning impossible.

The Solution: A Three-Pronged Approach to Optimization

Zero Down implemented a comprehensive, multi-faceted strategy to overhaul the client’s freight operations from the ground up.

1. Forensic Freight Audit & Recovery: The first step was a meticulous audit of recent freight invoices. This deep dive immediately uncovered significant billing discrepancies. Within the first 1.5 months of analysis, $37,714 in fuel surcharge overcharges were identified and recovered. Further analysis revealed an additional approximately $100,000 in overcharges resulting from misaligned rates.
2. Strategic Rate Renegotiation: Armed with data, Zero Down led a comprehensive negotiation process with the client’s incumbent carriers. Covering all domestic and international freight lanes, the goal was to eliminate reliance on spot quotes and secure highly competitive, market-aligned contract rates.
3. TMS Implementation & Automation: To create a sustainable, long-term solution, Zero Down deployed its proprietary Transportation Management System (TMS), FreightOptics. This platform automated the entire workflow by integrating the new, favorable rates, implementing address verification to prevent costly errors, and completely automating the freight audit process.

The Results: From Cost Center to Strategic Advantage

The partnership yielded immediate and transformative results. The strategic rate renegotiation alone secured an estimated $3.5 million in annual freight savings. This was complemented by the initial audit, which provided a massive and immediate ROI by recovering and identifying $137,714 in hidden billing errors.

Beyond the financial victories, the operational transformation was profound. The FreightOptics TMS automated the entire audit and rate application process, achieving 99%+ billing accuracy and cutting the logistics team’s manual workload by 95%. This shift gave the client complete, real-time visibility and data-driven control over their entire logistics network, turning a chaotic cost center into a model of efficiency.

Ready to Replicate This Success?

If you’re relying on manual processes and lack clear visibility into your freight spend, you could be overpaying.