13. Total charges to be collected are frequently in error, due to mistakes in addition in combining the advance charges with the freight charges and charges for any supplemental services as may have been rendered. 14. Drayage charges are occasionally added to bills where this service has been performed and is provided for in tariffs. Unless, however, there is a tariff provision for this service, charges cannot be properly collected. 15. The route designated by the shipper should be followed by the carrier. If no route is specified, it then becomes the duty of the carrier's agent to forward it via the cheapest route known to him. Failing to do so, the carrier becomes liable to the shipper for any additional expense. This sketches the fifteen opportunities for error on an expense bill of this kind. Where shipments which move on transit privileges or are switched or reconsigned at terminals, added opportunities for error arise. The complex nature of this audit clearly indicates that it is beyond the grasp of the ordinary shipping clerk or junior clerks in railroad offices, and necessitates the services of especially trained men to produce the best results. FORMS FOR OVERCHARGE AUDIT In the prosecution of this work many firms employ a form somewhat similar to the one shown in Fig. 22, which is prepared by the departmental accountant, and passed on to the overcharge claim investigator to be completed. The advantage of this form is that it requires the employee charged with the investigation of moneys paid, actually to compute all charges, and does not give him the railroad figures to shoot at. It has been found in some circles that claim investigators are wont to let some of the freight bills pass with little or no investigation. With the adoption of this form, however, it is necessary for them to go thru the necessary steps to determine the rates applicable on the shipment. When the form is complete, it is returned to the departmental accountant, who compares it with the freight bill rendered, and, if any discrepancy exists, notes the amount due the firm, and passes the paid freight bill and the form to the overcharge claim investigator for presentation and collection of claim. Some concerns have printed forms similar to that shown in Fig. 23, on which the weight, rate, and freight are indicated as they appear and as they should appear. Such forms may be affixed to the freight bill and returned to the carrier for correction. This enables the agent to locate the error readily and to make the necessary adjustment in his account and to render a new bill on the proper basis. Other concerns simply resort to pencil memorandums or red-ink corrections. This sums up the more important work of the employees in the rate division. Subsequent chapters will show other fields for the employment of the men in this division. In this chapter, the major operations of the rate divisions have been treated from the multiman point of view. In a one-man department, the work should be planned to afford the single worker, to some degree at least, the intelligent supervision that is afforded the industrial traffic man under the departmental system. Many of the forms mentioned in this chapter and the lines of suggested procedure prove adaptable equally to the one-man and multiman types of departments. CHAPTER IX CLAIM DEPARTMENT Time Limitations-Tracing Shipments: The Tracer; The TIME LIMITATIONS In the matter of loss and damage claims, close supervision of the correspondence concerning undelivered shipments is particularly necessary to avoid the possibility of a legitimate claim being outlawed under the time limitations incorporated in the uniform bill of lading and similar contracts of affreightment. The clause in the uniform bill of lading reads as follows: Except where the loss, damage, or injury complained of is due to delay or damage while being loaded or unloaded, or damaged in transit by carelessness or negligence, as conditions precedent to recovery, claims must be made in writing to the originating or delivering carrier within six months |