Resources & Insights
Thought leadership, research, and practical guides on freight audit, AI in logistics, and transportation cost optimization.
Recognized in the Gartner® Market Guide for Freight Audit & Payment Providers
Gartner recognized Orca for its cloud-based SaaS solution supporting all carriers, all modes of global transportation, across all regions. Processing $5B+ in freight payments annually with 2,000+ carriers and 80+ enterprise customers worldwide.
What Is Freight Audit & Payment?
New to freight audit? This short explainer breaks down how freight audit and payment works, why it matters, and how the right approach can turn transportation spend into a strategic advantage.
Transforming Detention and Demurrage: A Data-Driven Approach
Explore how leveraging data can transform detention and demurrage from a billing issue into a strategic advantage by connecting appointment, gate, and POD timestamps.
Read article →Closing the Month-End Freight Accrual Gap: Precision with Exception-Level Audit Data
Explore why transportation spend is notoriously difficult to close accurately at month-end and how leveraging exception-level audit data can enhance both accrual accuracy and forecasting.
Read article →Navigating the Freight Market: Why Shippers Overpay Despite Softening Spot Rates
In a market where spot rates are declining, shippers continue to overpay due to rising accessorial and detention charges. This blog explores how continuous freight audits can help identify and mitigate these hidden costs.
Read article →Closing the Month-End Freight Accrual Gap: Leveraging Exception-Level Audit Data
Explore the complexities of accurately closing transportation spend at month-end and discover how exception-level audit data can enhance both accrual accuracy and forecasting.
Read article →Elevating Financial Strategy: The Role of Freight Audits in Transportation Management
Explore how freight audits can transform financial oversight in transportation, offering CFOs and transportation leaders a strategic edge.
Read article →Uncover Hidden Costs: The Impact of DIM-Divisor and Minimum-Charge Creep on Small-Package Shippers
Explore how small-package shippers can lose margin due to silent DIM-divisor and minimum-charge creep. Learn how early audits can help catch these hidden costs and protect your bottom line.
Read article →Carrier Invoice Exception Aging: When Disputes Turn Into Freight Cost
Freight invoice exceptions are not only recovery work. When unresolved disputes age past carrier windows and internal follow-up cycles, preventable charges become accepted transportation cost.
Read article →Uncovering Hidden Costs: Why Shippers Overpay in a 'Buyer's Market'
Explore how softening spot rates are misleading shippers into overpaying due to rising accessorial and detention charges. Learn how continuous freight audit can reveal hidden surcharges and optimize your shipping costs.
Read article →Freight Accrual Drift: The Control Gap Between Shipments and Invoices
Freight accruals miss when shipment status, accessorial exposure, carrier rating, and invoice timing are managed in separate workflows. The control gap is not accounting math. It is transportation evidence quality.
Read article →Freight Claims Recovery as a Margin-Control Lever: Unlocking Hidden Savings
Explore how systematic freight claims audits can transform under-recovered claims into a consistent savings stream, enhancing your margin control strategy.
Read article →Shipment Milestone Integrity: The Timestamp Control Layer Freight Audit Needs
Freight invoices can look wrong because the operational timeline is incomplete. Gate-in, dock, load, departure, delivery, POD, and exception timestamps are becoming a control layer for detention, layover, storage, accessorial, accrual, and carrier performance decisions.
Read article →Unpacking Parcel Rate Increases: How DIM Divisor and Minimum Charge Creep Impact Your Bottom Line
Explore the hidden costs of parcel shipping as general rate increases and dimensional-weight recalculations silently erode margins. Learn how a proactive audit can identify and mitigate these challenges early.
Read article →Navigating the Mid-2026 Freight Market: Why Shippers Overpay in a Buyer's Market
Explore the complexities of the mid-2026 freight market, where softening spot rates contrast with rising accessorial and detention charges. Learn why shippers are overpaying despite favorable conditions and how a freight audit performance system can help CFOs and VP Transportatio
Read article →Elevating Freight Audits: A Strategic Guide for CFOs and Transportation Leaders
Explore the strategic importance of freight audits in optimizing transportation spend and enhancing financial oversight for CFOs and transportation executives.
Read article →Unlocking AI Success: The Critical Role of Freight Data in Project Launches
AI projects in transportation depend on accurate, comprehensive freight data. Shipment, invoice, carrier, route, and performance data form the foundation for reliable forecasting, automation, and decision-making.
Read article →Empowering Transportation Leaders with Data-Driven Insights
Transportation leaders are surrounded by freight data across modes, systems, carriers, invoices, and spreadsheets. The advantage comes from turning that data into clean, usable intelligence before strategic decisions or AI initiatives depend on it.
Read article →The Reason Your Supply Chain AI Will Certainly Fail: Avoiding the AI Trap
Shippers rushing into supply chain AI without a defined freight data strategy risk unreliable insights, poor decisions, and failed implementations. Freight audit gives teams the first practical step toward trusted AI-ready transportation data.
Read article →6 Carrier Pricing Changes Hit in 3 Weeks. Here Is What Most Shippers Missed.
LinkedIn carousel: six carrier pricing changes from USPS, UPS, FedEx in April-May 2026
Read article →Diesel Just Hit $5.64. Capacity Is at 2018 Lows. Your Freight Costs Are About to Move.
LinkedIn carousel: diesel price spike, capacity tightening, freight cost audit action items
Read article →UPS and FedEx International Surcharge Increases: What Shippers Should Audit Now
UPS and FedEx added new international demand and surge fees while raising fuel surcharge calculations in May 2026. For importers, exporters, and parcel-heavy shippers, the real risk is not one fee line — it is the compounding effect across lane, weight, fuel index, and carrier mix.
Read article →DHL Fuel Surcharge Tracker 2026: Express Weekly Rates, eCommerce Per-Pound Rates, and the May 30 DIM Changes
Current DHL Express export and import fuel surcharge percentages (updated weekly), DHL eCommerce domestic and international per-pound rates by month, how each is calculated, the May 30, 2026 fuel and DIM weight changes, and a maintained month-by-month archive.
Read article →Why 'Global by Design' Is Becoming the Defining Advantage in Freight Audit and Payment
Resilience is emerging as a defining competitive advantage in freight audit and payment — not as a contingency feature, but as a structural capability that directly impacts financial accuracy, governance, and trust.
Read article →The 2026 Logistics Outlook: Market Trends, AI Enablement, and Strategic Partner Selection
This report examines how logistics economics are shifting in 2026, why traditional cost-control approaches are breaking down across parcel and freight, and where freight audit and payment has become a strategic control layer rather than a back-office function.
Read article →5 Logistics Trends to Watch in 2026
A deep dive into key logistics industry developments expected in 2026, covering operational challenges across air cargo, last-mile delivery, maritime shipping, rail, and trucking sectors.
Read article →Top Supply Chain Risks and Trends to Follow in 2026
An analysis of critical supply chain challenges for 2026 — capacity constraints, labor issues, tariff impacts, and regulatory changes — and how geopolitical factors and trade policies are reshaping logistics and procurement strategies.
Read article →AI in Freight Procurement: How Artificial Intelligence Is Transforming Logistics Efficiency
How AI is reshaping freight procurement through smarter carrier selection, rate benchmarking, and negotiation automation across multiple transportation modes.
Read article →The Supply Chain Challenges That Refuse to Go Away in 2026
Tariffs, AI adoption gaps, demand volatility, and fraud continue to test supply chain resilience. This article examines persistent challenges and what leading organizations are doing differently to stay ahead.
Read article →Tariffs, Strikes and Tragedies: How 2025 Transformed Supply Chains
A comprehensive look back at the major disruptions that reshaped logistics and commerce throughout 2025 — trade policy shifts, labor disputes, and operational crises that collectively altered how goods move globally.
Read article →How Automation Is Solving Logistics' Biggest Problems
AI and machine learning are addressing critical logistics challenges — from real-time supplier visibility and fraud detection to EV fleet optimization and automating routine non-revenue tasks so teams can focus on strategy.
Read article →State of the Logistics Union 2025
U.S. logistics costs fell to 8.7% of GDP, with total business logistics costs reaching $2.58 trillion in 2024. A detailed breakdown of spending across transportation modes and growth trends across trucking, air freight, parcel, and rail.
Read article →5 Supply Chain Management Trends to Watch in 2026
Emerging supply chain management trends for 2026 spanning demand planning, financial risk management, labor, tariff implications, and technology — and how they reshape procurement and logistics operations across industries.
Read article →Freight Bill Audit & Payment: The Key to Supply Chain Clarity
How freight bill audit and payment providers are transforming supply chain management through data-driven insights, AI-powered cost recovery, and the blending of transportation spend management with traditional audit services.
Read article →AI in Supply Chain Management: How Useful Will It Be in 2026?
Industry experts rate AI's expected impact on supply chain management in 2026, with an average score of 8 out of 10. Respondents highlight AI's potential to transform forecasting, inventory optimization, and decision-making — while noting that data quality and implementation readiness remain critical.
Read article →Transforming Freight Audit and Payment with AI
How artificial intelligence is revolutionizing freight audit and payment — automating invoice validation, detecting fraudulent billing, accelerating payment cycles, and enabling companies to identify cost-saving opportunities at scale.
Read article →Want to see the platform behind the research?
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