Industry Insights
Clarity Is Missing From Shipping—and It's Costing Brands More Than Money
Shipping has quietly become one of the most complex and least understood parts of running a modern business.
As brands scale, they ship more orders, work with more fulfillment partners, add more carriers, and introduce more systems. What once felt manageable quickly becomes fragmented—especially when it comes to billing.
Invoices arrive weeks after shipments go out. Charges don't always match expectations. Adjustments appear without explanation. Disputes turn into long email threads. And somewhere along the way, confidence in shipping costs starts to erode.
This isn't because teams aren't trying hard enough.
It's because the system itself is broken.
The real problem isn't shipping—it's visibility
Most businesses don't lack shipping data. They lack clarity.
Order data lives in one place. Fulfillment data lives in another. Carrier invoices live somewhere else entirely. Each party—brands, 3PLs, carriers—sees only part of the picture. No one sees the whole thing at once.
When billing questions come up, teams are forced to stitch together spreadsheets, PDFs, exports, and assumptions just to answer a simple question:
What did we actually pay for this shipment—and why?
That gap between shipment and understanding is where overcharges hide, disputes grow, and trust starts to break down.
Why this problem keeps getting worse as companies grow
Ironically, the better a business performs, the harder shipping becomes to manage.
Growth introduces:
- Multiple fulfillment partners
- More carrier service levels
- Higher shipment volume
- More adjustments and accessorials
- Less time to manually reconcile invoices
At scale, manual reconciliation doesn't just become inefficient—it becomes impossible.
And when clarity disappears, teams compensate with:
- Conservative budgeting
- Delayed decisions
- Reactive cost control
- Strained partner relationships
Shipping becomes something to "manage around" instead of something teams can confidently operate.
We built RateRunners to change that
RateRunners was created around a simple belief:
You can't fix what you can't see.
Instead of forcing brands or vendors into siloed systems, RateRunners creates a shared source of truth—one place where shipments, invoices, adjustments, and payments align.
Every shipment is traceable.
Every charge is explainable.
Every stakeholder works from the same reality.
Not to police anyone.
Not to assign blame.
But to replace confusion with clarity.
This is just the beginning
This blog will explore:
- Why shipping finance breaks down at scale
- How billing complexity impacts growth decisions
- What brands, 3PLs, and carriers need to stay aligned
- How shared visibility changes partnerships for the better
We're building RateRunners in the open—because the problems we're solving are shared by thousands of teams across commerce and logistics.
If shipping has ever felt harder than it should be, you're not alone.
And if clarity feels missing, you're exactly who we're building for.