How Integrated Freight Platforms Save CFOs Time and Money
17 September 2025
ROI Discovery Workshop
A simple, one-hour workshop designed to uncover where freight costs, processes, and resources are costing more than they should.
Would you sign off on a budget knowing 3–5% of it was always being wasted?
Freight is one of the most unpredictable costs a CFO faces. Hidden in invoices, inflated by surcharges, and constantly putting pressure on margins, it’s a line item few finance leaders feel they can control.
While the warehouse team knows the weight of a box, and the sales team understands what was promised to the customer, the finance team often isn't involved in these details. Yet our extensive industry data indicates that 3–5% of freight spend is overcharged.
3-5% overspend accumulates quickly. A company spending $3m on freight could be overpaying by $90,000 to $150,000 each year!
This means finance teams are left reconciling invoices in the dark. What was quoted, what was shipped, and what was charged rarely line up. Unless the error is obvious, like a duplicate bill or an obvious weight mismatch, overcharges go unnoticed. Bills get paid on trust, not verification, simply because the right systems aren’t in place.
This blind spot means that finance leaders cannot accurately measure cost-to-serve and lack understanding of the actual expenses involved in servicing specific customers or routes.
The Role of Integrated Freight Platforms
An integrated freight management platform alters this dynamic by acting as a bridge between carriers and enterprise systems like ERPs. It offers a single source of truth: all quotes, consignments, and invoices are aligned and accessible in one location. For finance teams, this means invoices can be automatically reconciled against original quotes and real shipments. Discrepancies are flagged immediately, rather than hidden in spreadsheets.
The power of this integration extends beyond just cost recovery. It also enables precise cost-to-serve reporting. CFOs can analyse freight expenses by customer, lane, or product line, helping them identify which relationships are profitable and which are compromised by hidden logistics costs. Instead of operating blindly, finance leaders gain actionable insights that guide pricing strategies, contract negotiations, and investment choices.
Time and Money: The Measurable Benefits
One of our customers had eleven staff members manually checking freight invoices each day. After adopting our integrated freight management system (FMS), their workload reduced by 40%. This isn’t just a direct wage saving, but also an opportunity to redeploy skilled staff to more valuable tasks. In another instance, automated reconciliation identified consistent overcharges from a carrier that had gone unnoticed for years and recovering these costs paid for the platform many times over.
The indirect benefits are just as significant. Automating routine tasks allows finance professionals to reclaim time for forecasting, modelling, and strategic planning. Instead of chasing carriers for proofs of delivery or disputing line items, they can focus their efforts on shaping the company’s financial future. And when the board asks tough questions about cost control, the CFO has data-driven answers ready.
From Cost Centre to Strategic Advantage
For too long, freight has been seen as a necessary but overlooked expense. By using an integrated FMS like Cario, CFOs can turn freight from a hidden cost into a clear, manageable function that actively supports profitability. It’s not just about reducing waste; it’s about ensuring confidence that every dollar spent on freight is justified and each decision about service levels is supported by data.
In an environment where margins are tight and expectations are high, the ability to save time, recover funds, and provide clarity through integrated freight management gives your business a real strategic advantage. For CFOs, this shift means moving from reactive firefighting to proactive financial leadership.
To get visibility on how much wasted freight spend exists in your business and how to fix it, we’ve developed an ROI Tool and Discovery Session, specifically for finance teams. You can learn more and register interest in joining an ROI Discovery Workshop or explore our on-demand and customised demos here.