Freight invoice audit in the Savannah market

Executive Summary

Savannah's freight invoices carry a structural feature most inland lanes do not: a drayage leg tied to Georgia Ports Authority container flow, priced and surcharged separately from the linehaul move, and governed by its own detention and chassis terms. A rate card built for over-the-road freight often has no line for that leg at all, which means the invoice defaults to whatever the carrier or drayage provider bills, unchecked. 9% year over year over the same period (read 2026-09-06).

Fuel is the sharper problem. The PPI gasoline index (WPU0571) reads 302.759 for July 2026, up 37.1% year over year (read 2026-09-06), a move far steeper than the linehaul indices above it. A fuel surcharge table built on an older base and never re-anchored understates the true cost pass-through, or overstates it if the carrier updated their own schedule and the shipper's did not follow.

On a lane running through a container port, that gap compounds against a drayage accessorial schedule that is rarely renegotiated at the same cadence as the linehaul contract.

What changes it is treating the drayage leg and the linehaul leg as two separate contracts to audit, checking the fuel surcharge base against a dated index reading rather than trusting the carrier's own math, and confirming detention and chassis charges reference an actual Georgia Ports Authority free-time schedule rather than a generic accessorial table copied from an inland lane.

1. What is different about freight billing in Savannah?

Savannah freight invoices typically combine two distinct billing structures: a linehaul rate under a standard carrier contract, and a drayage leg priced against Georgia Ports Authority container movement, free-time windows, and chassis provision. Most rate cards are written for one or the other, not both. The audit question is not whether the linehaul rate matches the contract, but whether the drayage leg is even covered by a contract term at all, or defaults silently to the provider's own rate sheet.

A standard over-the-road rate card prices a lane by origin, destination and equipment type. It has no field for a drayage move from a marine terminal to an inland yard, because that move does not exist on most lanes. On freight touching the Port of Savannah, it does, and the invoice for it often arrives from a different provider than the one who carries the freight the rest of the way.

That separation matters because nobody owns the reconciliation. The linehaul carrier's invoice is checked against the linehaul contract. The drayage invoice, if it is checked at all, is checked against whatever accessorial table the drayage provider supplied, which the shipper's AP team rarely cross-references against Georgia Ports Authority's own published free-time and per-diem terms.

The result is a leg of the move that is billed correctly against its own invoice and never checked against the underlying terminal terms that should cap it.

2. How does port drayage change what an invoice actually bills for?

A drayage invoice bills for the container move between the marine terminal and an inland rail yard or distribution center, plus chassis rental, terminal handling, and per-diem or detention charges tied to how long the container or chassis sits before return. Each of those is priced and timed independently of the linehaul rate. An audit that treats the drayage line as a single flat accessorial misses the detention clock and the chassis charge as two separate exposures, not one.

Detention and per-diem charges accrue against a free-time clock that starts when the container is available for pickup at the terminal, not when the shipper's driver actually arrives. If congestion at the terminal delays pickup, the clock still runs, and the invoice for that delay lands on the shipper unless the contract states who absorbs terminal-caused delay.

Chassis charges are billed separately from the container move itself, on a daily or per-use basis depending on whether the chassis comes from a pool or a dedicated provider. A rate card that bundles chassis into a flat drayage rate will not catch a chassis invoice billed on top of that rate for the same move.

Each of these charges needs its own line in the contract and its own check on the invoice. Bundling them into one drayage accessorial line is exactly the pattern this audit exists to unwind.

3. Why does the fuel surcharge table need re-checking on this lane?

The PPI gasoline index (WPU0571) read 302.759 in July 2026, up 37.1% year over year (read 2026-09-06), a steeper move than the linehaul cost indices it is meant to track. A fuel surcharge schedule anchored to an older base price understates the pass-through the carrier is entitled to, or, if the carrier updated their schedule unilaterally, overstates what the contract actually authorizes. Either direction is a drift the invoice will not flag on its own.

A fuel surcharge clause typically references a base price and a schedule of surcharge percentages tied to bands above that base. When the base was set matters as much as the schedule itself: a base set before a fuel spike produces a surcharge that looks contractually correct while charging against stale math.

On Savannah-linked lanes, the drayage leg often carries its own fuel surcharge, separate from the linehaul fuel surcharge, because the drayage provider's fuel exposure and rate structure differ from the linehaul carrier's. An invoice audit that checks one surcharge and assumes the other matches it is checking the wrong thing.

The fix is not a new number pulled from memory. It is re-anchoring the contract's stated base against a current, dated index reading and confirming the carrier's applied percentage still matches the schedule the contract actually specifies.

4. How do linehaul cost indices apply to a Savannah lane audit?

BLS PPI data for general freight trucking, long-distance TL (series PCU484121484121) read 195.575 in July 2026, up 8.1% year over year, and the broader truck transportation of freight commodity index (WPU3012) read 170.984, up 10.9% year over year, both read 2026-09-06. Neither figure tells you what your specific carrier should charge. Both give you a dated reference point to test whether a rate increase your carrier proposed is in line with a published cost index or.

A carrier requesting a rate increase will often cite rising costs without naming a source. Holding that request against a dated PPI reading gives the negotiation a fixed point: the increase can be compared to the published movement in the relevant series rather than accepted or rejected on the carrier's word alone.

The two series move differently for a reason. The commodity-level index (WPU3012) aggregates truck transportation of freight broadly; the industry-level index (PCU484121484121) is specific to general freight trucking, long-distance, truckload. A Savannah lane running long-distance TL freight is closer to the second series than the first, so a rate increase justified by the broader index deserves a second look against the narrower one.

Neither index substitutes for auditing the invoice itself. They set the outside boundary for whether a rate change is plausible before the line-by-line contract match begins.

5. What contract terms should a Savannah-lane freight audit check first?

Four terms carry the most exposure on a port-linked lane: the free-time window before detention starts, the chassis provision and billing method, the fuel surcharge base date for each separately priced leg, and whether accessorial charges specific to drayage are named in the contract at all or left to the provider's own tariff. An invoice can be arithmetically correct against a provider's own rate sheet while still charging for a term the shipper's contract never agreed to.

These four terms recur because each one sits at a seam between two parties, the terminal operator, the drayage provider and the linehaul carrier, none of whom is contractually responsible for reconciling the others' charges against the shipper's actual agreement.

A rate card audit that stops at the linehaul rate and treats the rest as a pass-through accessorial will miss all four. Checking them requires pulling the actual drayage services agreement, not just the master transportation agreement, and reading it against the invoice line by line.

• Free-time window: Confirm the contract states when the detention clock starts and who absorbs delay caused by terminal congestion rather than the shipper's own dispatch.
• Chassis provision: Check whether chassis is billed as part of a flat drayage rate or as a separate daily charge, and whether the invoice matches whichever method the contract specifies.
• Fuel surcharge base date: Verify the base price each surcharge schedule references, for both the linehaul and drayage legs separately, against a current index reading.
• Named drayage accessorials: Confirm terminal handling, per-diem, and container storage charges appear as named terms in the contract, not just on the provider's own invoice format.

6. Should a Savannah-lane audit be run differently from an inland freight audit?

Yes, in scope rather than method. An inland freight audit checks a single rate card against a single carrier invoice. A Savannah-lane audit has to check two contracts, linehaul and drayage, against two invoices that may arrive from two different providers on two different billing cycles, and reconcile both against terminal-specific terms neither contract may fully state.

The underlying discipline, invoice-to-contract line matching, does not change. What changes is how many contracts that discipline has to be applied to.

An inland audit can often be completed by pulling one rate card and one invoice set. A port-linked lane requires pulling the linehaul contract, the drayage services agreement, and, where terms are silent, the terminal operator's own published free-time and per-diem schedule, then checking all three against however many separate invoices the move generated.

That is more work per lane, not different work. The same questions apply: does the invoice match the rate the contract specifies, is the surcharge base current, are accessorial charges named terms or provider defaults. The Savannah market simply multiplies the number of places those questions have to be asked for a single container move.

For the wider pattern this sits inside, start with the margin drift guide. See also the six categories drift hides in and accessorial charge audit: the surcharges nobody validates.

7. Frequently Asked Questions (People Also Ask)

Does a standard freight rate card cover drayage charges from the Port of Savannah?

Usually not directly. Most rate cards are built for linehaul moves priced by origin, destination and equipment. Drayage from a marine terminal is a separate service with its own pricing structure, and unless the contract explicitly names drayage accessorials, the invoice for that leg defaults to the provider's own rate sheet.

Why did our fuel surcharge go up faster than our linehaul rate?

The PPI gasoline index (WPU0571) read 302.759 in July 2026, up 37.1% year over year (read 2026-09-06), a much steeper move than the general freight trucking index. If your surcharge schedule tracks fuel price movement directly, it can outpace the linehaul rate even when the linehaul contract itself has not changed.

Who is responsible for detention charges caused by port congestion?

That depends entirely on what your contract states, not on general practice. Confirm the free-time clock's start condition and whether delay caused by the terminal, rather than your own dispatch, is excluded from detention billing. If the contract is silent on this, the drayage provider's own tariff likely governs by default.

Is chassis rental usually included in a drayage rate?

It depends on how the specific drayage agreement is written. Some bundle chassis into a flat per-move rate; others bill it separately on a daily basis. The invoice needs to be checked against whichever method the contract actually specifies, since a mismatch here is a common source of double-billing.

How do I know if a carrier's rate increase request is reasonable?

Compare it against a dated cost index rather than accepting the carrier's stated justification alone. BLS PPI series PCU484121484121, for general freight trucking long-distance TL, read 195.575 in July 2026, up 8.1% year over year (read 2026-09-06), which gives a reference point for whether the requested increase is in line with published cost movement.

Do the linehaul and drayage legs of a Savannah shipment need separate fuel surcharge checks?

Yes. The drayage provider's fuel exposure and surcharge schedule are typically set independently of the linehaul carrier's. Checking one surcharge and assuming the other matches it will miss drift on whichever leg was not directly checked.

What is the single biggest gap in most Savannah-lane freight audits?

Treating the drayage leg as a flat accessorial rather than a set of separately priced terms: free time, chassis, terminal handling, and its own fuel surcharge. Each needs its own contract reference and its own line-by-line check against the invoice.

Can a freight invoice be correct against the provider's own tariff but still wrong?

Yes. An invoice can match the drayage provider's published rate sheet exactly while charging for a term your actual contract with them never agreed to, such as a shorter free-time window or a chassis fee billed on top of a bundled rate.

Where do I find the source data behind these freight cost figures?

The general freight trucking figures cited here come from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics Producer Price Index, series WPU3012 and PCU484121484121, and the fuel figure from series WPU0571, all read 2026-09-06. These are published, dated index values, not ValueXPA-specific findings.