Logistics
Beyond
Expectations

When you partner with Universal, you partner with the industry-leader in controlling inventory to manufacturing — and you gain significant benefits. You acquire access to exceptional people, processes, and systems and you realize Lean practices that are controlled, accurate, and dependable.

Universal has the experience that comes from having performed a complete range of services in complex manufacturing environments for a multitude of existing customers across numerous industries including automotive, aerospace, and industrial manufacturing.

Steam Cargo Express offers a wide variety of reports that can be automatically generated, formatted, and emailed on a regular schedule. When a standard report won’t suffice, customized reports can also be created. Reports we provide include:

• Diverse Report Topics – As well as inbound, outbound, inventory status, and activity reporting, report topics, may include items such as potential product shortages and when they will occur, order scheduling activity, and warehouse storage capacity
• Flexible Content – Standard reports have various options that control the data shown; sorting, grouping, and customization extends this even more
• Output Format Choices – Typical output is in formats that can be manipulated, or as a PDF upon request
• Transmission Options – Email or other FTP methods are available for report transmission

Freight payment is a collection of processes that can be thought of in general terms as an accounts payable service for transportation invoices.  Freight payment services providers, such as a 3PL, act as the intermediary between the shipper and the carrier to receive, process, and pay invoices.  Every company is different so some processes may vary slightly, but typically invoices are sent directly to the freight payment provider by the carriers.  Upon receipt of the invoices, the following processes are usually included in a quality freight payment solution.

Invoice Receipt – Carriers submit invoices to the intermediary (such as a 3PL) in a variety of formats for processing.  Typical methods include manual invoices sent via the mail or email and electronic invoices sent via EDI.

Invoice Validation –  Upon receipt of invoices, the logistics services provider will validate and audit each invoice to make sure that the invoices have not been previously processed (duplicates), are the shipper’s responsibility to pay (billed correctly), and include proper/necessary documentation.  Additional shipper-specific validations are frequently included in this process such as the validation of bill of lading or purchase order numbers against a shipper’s internal data sets.