TransmetriQ, a Railinc brand specializing in rail shipment visibility, has introduced Freight Payables, a new module designed to automate freight invoice audits for carload shippers.
The tool addresses growing pressure on logistics and transportation teams to improve cost transparency and billing accuracy while reducing waste. Freight Payables automates invoice review processes that have traditionally required significant manual work.
According to the company, rail shippers face three main challenges: audit process requirements without efficient compliance management, billing errors that surface after payment, and time-consuming manual invoice reviews that drain staff resources.
“Our data shows that audits processed by hand miss errors on freight bills and accessorial charges,” said Danny Dever, Sr. Product Manager, Shipments & Visibility, TransmetriQ. “We have caught more than 20 different kinds of invoice errors, ranging from fuel and tariff rate mismatches to missing origins and invoice numbers, that were costing shippers time and money.”
Most existing solutions serve either transportation teams or accounting teams separately, but Freight Payables provides real-time visibility for both functions to collaborate on the freight payment process.
The tool particularly addresses challenges with Rule 11 shipments, an AAR rule for interline moves crossing multiple railroads. Under Rule 11, each carrier bills separately for its portion of the route under a single bill of lading. A shipment crossing three railroads generates three separate invoices, each requiring verification against agreed rates.
“Many shippers’ accounting teams require that every invoice for a Rule 11 shipment be received before any payment can be made,” Dever said. “This enables shippers to audit the full cost of a shipment, but it leads to backlogs and late payments if one railroad invoices before another.”
TransmetriQ prevents backlogs by auditing each segment of Rule 11 moves individually rather than the overall move from origin to destination.
The system uses TransmetriQ’s Shipment Rating tool, which maintains a continuously updated record of negotiated rates and public tariffs. Freight Payables checks incoming invoices against this record, flags discrepancies, and routes them into a shared workflow where finance and operations teams can review, approve or dispute charges without spreadsheets or email chains.
