Refusing to accept invoices by email?...

F1 Freight

F1 Freight

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May 14, 2009
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We have a customer (Broker) that was requesting a POD today (By email). Sure, no problem, we ask them to confirm we can send the invoice and POD together to them instantly as soon as it is invoiced. Our accounting staff are told they ONLY accept invoices by mail. I look them up as I was not too happy how the conversation ended on the phone with their Director to try and justify this "policy"and notice they are just across the highway from us, so I went to drop it off to them personally so they got the POD as soon as the invoice was completed here today as well as discuss this policy in person. Long story short this is the response we get from them:

Appreciate you dropping the invoice off and the paperwork and I am sorry that I can’t make you understand the why of why we can’t accept invoices and paperwork by email. We have too many clients and too many auditors to be able to accept the cost and time of segregating the invoices out by auditor, sending it to them and then printing invoice and back up for all invoices processed. The quantity of invoices will not change but the time to segregate and distribute to appropriate party would not to mention the amount of toner, ink, paper that is required to process the number of invoices received would.

Trying to get some more perspective on this from others on insidetransport. Is this still common in todays day in age, as we have not come across a policy like this in the last decade with any other customers? It seems like a stall tactic for payment to us more than anything else, and based on their explanation I am still not closer to agreement? Ironically enough this company markets themselves as focusing on outsourced audits & transportation management while reducing transport costs through technology and process innovations. My moan and groan for the day... Chris @F1 Freight
 
I smell BS...

I have a few that do this, not many... I too think it is just a ploy to slow down payment...
 
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Their argument is basically they don't want to run their printer and pay for toner, but you should be willing to pay the $.85 to send the invoice via mail. Their policy is simply outdated.. they don't need to print out your emailed invoices.. simply archive them. I don't think this is a stall tactic as net days to pay are generally calculated from the the time the shipment is picked up. It would be in their best interest to get your invoice as quickly as possible.. if they want they can always sit on it for a couple of days before paying it. Requesting postal service to delay days to pay is not a tactic that works or even makes any sense at all. BUT!!!!..they're your customer... sometimes you've got to do what doesn't make sense to you. I have customers who have convoluted requirements and processes, and any errors result in my checks being delayed.. I don't like it.. but I love people who send me money for services rendered.. so long as that happens I'll work with them.
 
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This irks me as well. Another frustration is you invoice and mail, then someone calls and wants a copy of pod and invoice immediately, and I ask "Why don't you have this information added to your load confirmation so as to make everyone's job easier."
 
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I have only ever heard of this scenario once, from a company out of Montreal. His staff later indicated that this policy was a stalling tactic to pay bills.
 
Something smells here.
In the distant past we, like many others were not set up to scan in and store all documents on our servers (backed up to the cloud of course) and were stuck holding 7 years of paperwork catalogued. That's invoice from the carrier, hard copy of our order to the carrier, hard copy of the BOL just in case we ever needed access to any of those documents or in case of audit were all kept and old paper smells. I can tell you digging through despite the cataloguing for a BOL from a year ago to prove is was received free and clear was daunting. Not to mention the square footage of the offsite facility that did nothing more than house paperwork! As technology progressed everything is stored on computers scanned in we applaud carriers that can email in paperwork for us. It saves us scanning them in, good scanners aren't cheap and the wear and tear on them means they don't last more than 4 years.

Compare the cost of a storage facility and the time to bring boxes and boxes there, plus toner and disposal of the 8th year of paperwork annually with the cost of a computer and backup and you'd quickly find that technology saves big time in the end!

When's the last time anyone used a fax? When it rings here we laugh because we know it's not an insurance certificate or an important document - it's spam. Orders and paperwork are preferred sent by email by all parties, why? It's easier, faster and goes right to the computer screen of the person that needs it. Simple.

Happy Friday,
Mike
 
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You can't beat the convenience of scanned documents. For some reason however, they are still not universally accepted (older school businesses, legal agreements, communications to our highly-accommodating federal and provincial governments are but a few examples that come to mind). With the passage of time, I pray these laggards will come around, but I won't hold my breath where any government is concerned.
 
some of us still use fax machines Mike Jr. Not all shippers will scan our paperwork. Heck, a good number of them won't even fax our paperwork to us. We are stuck using truck stop faxes at $2.00 a page. There is that pet food shipper in AB that gives us 65 pages of paperwork on average and they refuse to fax it. They send us to the truck stop near by. Do the math 65 pages @ $2/ page and they pay us dirt cheap too
 
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Chris isn't dealing with the government. He's dealing with a customer who is making him jump through hoops to be paid for his hard work. In less than 15 years our industry went from handshake deals to everything by email in order to track accountability. You are right though - there are laggards in other industries.

Keep well,
Mike
martinetav said:
some of us still use fax machines Mike Jr. Not all shippers will scan our paperwork. Heck, a good number of them won't even fax our paperwork to us. We are stuck using truck stop faxes at $2.00 a page. There is that pet food shipper in AB that gives us 65 pages of paperwork on average and they refuse to fax it. They send us to the truck stop near by. Do the math 65 pages @ $2/ page and they pay us dirt cheap too
Click to expand...

Being on the road with an uncooperative shipper is different than admin staff delaying payment because they need 'originals in the mail'. I think every shipper of international goods should be responsible for getting paperwork to the customs broker. If you want to sell your product internationally you need to make it as easy as possible to get your goods to your customer. I totally get you on faxing paperwork to customs brokers, it's still a necessary evil. I say evil because as you mentioned it falls on the carrier to do it even if that means off route miles, paying stupid rates per page, etc...

Keep well,
Mike
 
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We have a few accounts that still require paperwork to be mailed. Simply refuse to accept emailed copies.

They also happen to be slow paying accounts that I constantly need to chase and follow up on. Just a stall tactic on payment - that's all it is as previous members noted.
 
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martinetav said:
some of us still use fax machines Mike Jr. Not all shippers will scan our paperwork. Heck, a good number of them won't even fax our paperwork to us. We are stuck using truck stop faxes at $2.00 a page. There is that pet food shipper in AB that gives us 65 pages of paperwork on average and they refuse to fax it. They send us to the truck stop near by. Do the math 65 pages @ $2/ page and they pay us dirt cheap too
Click to expand...
I hear ya! We don't run into it too often but there are shippers out there who refuse to allow the driver to fax the customs paperwork to the customs broker. On the flip side, there are also shippers who insist on faxing the paperwork for the driver and they won't let the driver leave without the confirmation. We live in a strange world...
 
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Igor Galanter said:
Wow, martinetav... My Epson XP 520 cost me less than the amount of one fax..Plus no extra stop and wait..
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I know Igor but, there are still older guys who will tell you 'I became a trucker because I didn't want to have to deal with technology' These are the last things they can refuse lol. I've been preparing them for elogs every since they came to light. I've got at least one who, when asked when he's going to retire, responds 'when's that electric log book thingy':)
 
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The only ones I know of that are still doing this are the freight payment companies that some larger companies hire. There is no reason for this during this time and age.
 
We are abroker that accepts emailed invoices and pod and pay via electronic funds transfer, if your broker does not, be careful!!!
 
If both Canada and US and all the customs brokers can accept emailed documents then so should customers for PODS
We asked to receive all invoices by email and we pay everyone electronically too. We are a paperless company.
 
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If they tel you in advance that they need them, and you prefer not to provide them, don't take the work on?
 
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