Guide 8 of 11 · 6 minute read
Auditing the fuel line on your invoices
A short, repeatable check catches the most common fuel billing errors.
The weekly check
- Take the ship date and find its Monday-to-Sunday week.
- Look up the published surcharge for that carrier, service and week on our rate board.
- Apply your contract fuel discount or cap.
- Divide the fuel billed by the charges fuel applies to, and compare.
Common errors
- Fuel applied at the full published rate when a discount should apply.
- The wrong week’s rate used around a Monday reset.
- Fuel applied to accessorials your contract excludes.
- Fuel calculated before, rather than after, accessorial discounts.
Make it routine
Spot-check one week a month at minimum. If the gap is consistent, it is a contract or set-up issue worth raising with the carrier, with dates and amounts.
Key takeaways
- Match each invoice to its ship-date week.
- Check the discount, the week and the base.
- Consistent gaps point to a set-up issue the carrier should correct.
By the Logistics Contract Optimizer team. Rates cited are from the week of November 2, 2026 unless stated; see the rate board for this week.