Freight Claims Management

Everyone wants their freight claims processed efficiently and payments made promptly, but what about the overall claim count? Data insights are the key driver behind decision making in a competitive market, but many freight claims management services are only focused on the opening and closing of your freight claims.

Visiclaims provides complete visibility at every step of the claims process, while working with you to identify exactly which key indicators can point out useful insights hiding in your freight claims data. Not sure what to look for? Let our team of experts assist you in discovering where the real savings are.

Our Claims Service Team provides both oversight and execution in support of your claims management process. Whether it’s data insights, visibility or simply an organized claims processing tool, we can customize our solution service to meet your needs.

Average Claim Cycle Time (Days)

Average Recovery Rate

Managed Claims Processed Since 2016

Data Insights

It’s important to understand which conditions are most likely to contribute to freight claims, so your company can find ways to adjust those conditions or even avoid them. Freight claims are demands made by a company or individual who shipped a product with a carrier. If the product arrives at its destination damaged or never arrives at all, the shipper or consignee can request financial reimbursement from the carrier.

Our team of freight claims management experts will provide a monthly report giving you visibility to the factors contributing to your freight being damaged or lost. We track the data points that will best assist you regarding modal considerations, alternative product packaging methods, and carrier specific mishandling – ultimately helping you reduce claims. You decide which factors will provide the most useful insight in your monthly reporting. Don’t know what to look for? We can help!

Modal Considerations
How your shipments arrive at their destination can have a significant impact on the number of freight claims you receive. Modal options include air, truck, rail and maritime. Within each category, there are sub-categories, such as truckload and less-than-truckload for shipments made by truck.
One way to get a better understanding of how modal considerations affect freight claims is to look at the chart below. The chart depicts a clear impression that the client’s Less-Than-Truckload shipments are more likely to require a claim to be filed. Now, consider the fact that the company above ships roughly 50-50 between the number of LTL and TL loads. Data tracking shows they are experiencing significantly more damaged and lost claims in their LTL mode. This data insight may facilitate discussion, prompting the question, “Should we consider modal change?”
In this case, the answer is likely yes, as the company can stand to save a considerable amount of money by reducing or even eliminating LTL loads.
Product Packaging
When packaging engineers consider the best methods to secure and protect products, they evaluate the highest-risk to product safety, and work their way down, all while considering the cost. That being said, once the optimal protection method is agreed upon, little if any re-evaluation takes place. This is certainly not due to a lack of desire on behalf of the company to optimize their packaging methods, rather, it is much more likely the case that a company does not have visibility to data tracking factors of claims such as:
- Specific Product Type
- Damage Type & Location
- Extent of Damage
- Lack Packaging Protection
Understanding how products incur damage is vital to the optimization of product packaging. Wouldn’t you want to know if you could spend a nickel on cardboard to prevent reshipping a product while your customer waits?
Working with a freight claims handling company provides you with access to these data insights so you can answer questions such as:
“Were the damaged products palletized using banding or shrink wrap?”
“Were the damaged goods protected with foam or exposed to the trailer?”
“Why are the sides of the machine getting scratched while the hoods are getting dented?”
Carrier Mishandling
As empowering as data insights can be, they are rendered useless or even counter-productive if the story the data tells is not framed properly. With Visiclaims, our team understands the need to identify the driving force behind each variable, as well as the relationship it shares with other factors.
The following conversation illustrates how a trained eye on the data can reveal truth in the numbers.
Client:
Client: “I can’t believe how many claims we file against Carrier C! Sure, they haul more shipments than both Carrier A and Carrier B, but they are damaging our product three times more often! Are we sure they are providing us the highest-quality service?”
When it comes to carrier mishandling, it’s not always as cut and dry as “Who broke it, and how many did they break?” Factors such as the length of haul, or the number of touch-points can greatly increase the risk of damaging products.
We can give you the data points that allow you to consider which factors are driving over, short and damaged (OS&D) trends in your supply chain, clearly spelling out the narrative within the data. For example, Carrier C might have more damaged shipments, but it is also shipping items further than either Carrier A or B. It’s also handling considerably more shipments. An outsourced freight claims management company will review the data for you and help you make the best decision when it comes to continuing to work with a carrier or deciding to use other companies more frequently.

At the end of the day, Visiclaims data insights can be utilized to optimize your supply chain in a variety of ways. We understand that a change from LTL to TL shipments does not come without cost. Likewise, additional packaging protection typically comes hand-in-hand with an additional packaging expense.

That being said, optimizing your claims management process with Visiclaims can empower you to negate damaged & lost freight claims wherever possible, leading to a more consistent and predictable delivery execution. In your supply chain, predictability translates to efficiency, and efficiency to savings, and it doesn’t stop there. When your products arrive in pristine condition and on-schedule, it provides your customer with peace-of-mind, knowing that your company is a consistent & reliable source of high-quality products.

A 3-Tier Approach

Visiclaim software is Rockfarm Supply Chain Solution’s cloud-based freight claims management system. The software helps you file a claim with a transportation company when needed and provides insight into why the claim happened. Using the software lets you settle claims quickly and get paid while illuminating the cause of the issue.

When you work with Rockfarm and our Visiclaims team, you’ll identify the documentation relevant to your claims, as well as factors to track in order to provide the most useful insights in your monthly report. We understand that no two companies are exactly alike, so why would their claims process be?

From start to finish, Visiclaims works to save you money, keep your operation productive and minimize the hassle when the unexpected happens. We do this by offering three tiers of freight claims management. Based on the needs of your organization, we can provide any combination of:

Tier 1: Claims Support
The Visiclaims system is a cloud-based freight claims management system software package that takes your team step-by-step through the claims process. We designed Visiclaims to provide complete transparency from the moment you file a claim to its final settlement.
At the same time, it is also a powerful data-gathering tool. Over time, the system will help identify general trends and potential areas of concern, so you make more informed and proactive business decisions. Sophisticated reporting tools put this information in an easy-to-understand format. Visiclaims first-tier service is ideal for businesses that want granular control over the claims management process while still benefiting from our suite of advanced, time-saving online tools.
Tier 2: Mitigation & Compliance
The second tier of our freight management service is mitigation and compliance. We understand that it isn’t always possible to resolve claims easily. Disputes with carriers are a fact of life — one that can drag out the settlement process and affect your business. Organizations that want to further streamline their claims management process can outsource mitigation and compliance to Visiclaims.
After you’ve used our software to create a claim, if there’s an issue, our team will step in to help resolve it unlike tier 1, where the shipper is responsible for following up with the carrier if there is no response.. We communicate with carriers on your behalf to resolve any disputes that arise. Ultimately, this saves you money and reduces the amount of paperwork and headaches for your staff.
Tier 3: Fully-Managed
For the ultimate in ease and convenience, consider outsourcing your freight claims management services entirely to Visiclaims. When an accident happens, give us the details and the relevant documentation. We will produce a claim, present it to the carrier and mitigate on your behalf until the matter is settled. The Visiclaims team is dedicated exclusively to freight claims management — we have the resources and the expertise necessary to achieve a timely and beneficial resolution, no matter the scope of the accident. You’ll save money by minimizing risk and reducing your operating costs, all while freeing up administrative staff to work on more proactive business goals.

The freight claims process follows a relatively standard workflow mandated by the Carmack Amendment. Unfortunately, this tends to cross-over into the approach some claims management providers take regarding their integration with clientele. The team behind Visiclaims understands that your products are unique. We work with you to custom-tailor process features and data tracking to meet your individual needs. Regardless of which tier best fits your company, you still receive a monthly scorecard packed with data specific to your freight claims profile as well as direct access to our Visiclaims portal, where you can track the progress of each claim anywhere that you have an internet connection.

Why Outsource Freight Claims Management?

Freight claims are a part of doing business, particularly if your business ships a high volume of goods, but they can also be a hassle to deal with. You’d much rather focus on doing things that will help your company grow and thrive, rather than on chasing down shippers to get them to cover the cost of lost or damaged products.

For that reason, many shippers are turning to outsourced freight claims management. Working with a company such as Rockfarm and using our Visiclaim software can take the stress and hassle out of getting reimbursed for lost or damaged shipments.

When you work with an outsourced freight claims handling company, you have someone in your corner and on your side. You know that someone is working on your behalf to make sure you get the reimbursement you’re owed. Meanwhile, you are able to focus on the issues that are most important to your company.

Our cloud-based freight claims management system can be customized to your needs and to best benefit your business. We’re happy to work with you to help you choose the tier that is the best fit for your company at the moment. If you ever need to change your approach or move to a different service tier in the future, you’ll be able to do so quickly and easily.

Visibility

The pride of Visiclaims stands on the cornerstone of visibility. With our cloud-based technology, you have 24/7 access to your claims. You can see exactly which step of the process your claim is on, which references have been tracked on each claim, as well as the value being requested for resolution.

Working with Visiclaims

Visiclaims is a division of Rockfarm Supply Chain Solutions — a leading freight management company serving clients across North America. We understand the need for advanced, intuitive services that are customized to reflect the needs of your business.

If you’re interested in learning more about how our Visiclaims freight logistics company can help you resolve freight claims, cut costs and make more informed business decisions, call us at 815.573.0155 or get in touch today. One of our representatives would be happy to put together a package of services that works for you.