Freight claims management software that runs the 30 day and 120 day clocks on every claim you touch
Freight claims management is the handling of loss, damage and delay claims against a motor carrier, and the timetable is federal. Under 49 CFR 370.5 a carrier acknowledges a written claim within 30 days, under 370.9 it must pay, decline or make a firm compromise settlement offer within 120 days and then report status every 60 days, and under 49 U.S.C. 14706 a carrier may not allow less than 9 months to file or less than 2 years to sue. Neurobird holds the shipment, the documents and both clocks on one claim.
Neurobird Freight Claims Management in short
- Stamp the date of receipt and assign a claim number the moment a written claim lands
- Acknowledge inside 30 days and name the documents you still need in the same letter
- Drive to a payment, a declination or a firm compromise offer inside the 120 day window
- 30 days Time a carrier has to acknowledge a proper written claim in writing, unless it has already paid or declined the claim inside the same 30 days, and the acknowledgment must state what further documentation is needed. 49 CFR 370.5
- 120 days Time a carrier has to pay, decline or make a firm compromise settlement offer in writing. If the claim is still open at that point the carrier must advise the claimant of its status every 60 days and keep a copy in the file. 49 CFR 370.9
- Pricing runs 139 to 1290 US dollars per month across 3 tiers. Early access is free.
What motor carriers, brokers and shippers actually deal with
Why it stays broken
A freight claim sits between operations, which has the freight, and finance, which has the money, and the regulation speaks to neither of them. Part 370 tells a carrier to open a separate file, assign a successive claim number and write the date of receipt on the face of the document, which is a filing clerk's instruction written in 1997 and never translated into software. Transportation management systems track the shipment and stop at delivery, which is exactly where a claim begins.
Under 49 CFR 370.9 a carrier must pay, decline or make a firm compromise settlement offer within 120 days of receiving a claim, and advise the claimant in writing every 60 days after that while it stays open.
The NHS consists of roadways important to the Nation's economy, defense, and mobility serving major freight and passenger nodes across all transportation modes.
Neurobird Freight Claims Management Document Automation Platform
One record per claim: the shipment and the parties, the date of receipt written on the face of it, the documents Part 370 calls for, the acknowledgment, the disposition, the salvage lot if there was one, and the filing and suit windows that follow from the delivery date.
- 1Stamp the date of receipt and assign a claim number the moment a written claim lands
- 2Acknowledge inside 30 days and name the documents you still need in the same letter
- 3Drive to a payment, a declination or a firm compromise offer inside the 120 day window
- 4Attach the salvage lot number and the money it returned to the claim it came from
What changes with Neurobird Freight Claims Management?
The same work, read left to right: how it runs today, and how it runs once the record is in one place.
| Today | With Neurobird Freight Claims Management |
|---|---|
| A claim arrives by email, gets a reply, and never gets a file number, so nothing starts the 120 day clock | Stamp the date of receipt and assign a claim number the moment a written claim lands |
| The bill of lading, the delivery receipt and the invoice are in three systems and only meet when a lawyer asks for them | Acknowledge inside 30 days and name the documents you still need in the same letter |
| Salvage is disposed of and the money that came back never lands in the claim file it belongs to | Drive to a payment, a declination or a firm compromise offer inside the 120 day window |
Who is this for?
The same regulation, three sides of the same shipment.
You are the one being claimed against
Every written claim starts a 120 day clock the day it arrives. You need the date of receipt on the record and a disposition letter that goes out before the window closes.
You are filing them
Your claim has to identify the shipment, assert liability and state an amount. You need the filing window per carrier and proof of what you sent, not a folder of forwarded emails.
You sit in the middle
The claim comes from your customer and goes to a carrier you contracted. You need both sides of the file on one record, with the dates that apply to each.
The claim board, as your desk would work it
Acknowledge a claim and watch the disposition window and the status letters move with it.
Watch the fields extract from the document.
What the rules say about cargo claims
The federal principles and practices for investigating loss and damage claims, the statute behind carrier liability, and the windows both sides are working against.
Time a carrier has to acknowledge a proper written claim in writing, unless it has already paid or declined the claim inside the same 30 days, and the acknowledgment must state what further documentation is needed.
49 CFR 370.5Time a carrier has to pay, decline or make a firm compromise settlement offer in writing. If the claim is still open at that point the carrier must advise the claimant of its status every 60 days and keep a copy in the file.
49 CFR 370.9Shortest claim filing period a carrier may impose by rule or contract, alongside a minimum of 2 years to bring a civil action, computed from the date the carrier gave written notice that it disallowed part of the claim.
49 U.S.C. 14706Time a carrier has to begin a civil action to recover its own transportation charges, and the same period applies to a person recovering overcharges, with the clock running from the date the claim accrues.
49 U.S.C. 14705What a written communication must contain to count as a filed claim: facts sufficient to identify the shipment, an assertion of liability, and a demand for a specified or determinable amount of money.
49 CFR 370.3The salvage section, which requires a carrier to assign a successive lot number to each lot disposed of and to record in the claim file the lot number, the money recovered and the date it was transmitted.
49 CFR 370.11How does Neurobird Freight Claims Management work?
Open the claim
Shipment, bill of lading, the party asserting liability and the amount claimed, checked against the three minimum filing requirements so a bad order report does not get treated as a claim.
Work the file
The acknowledgment goes out inside 30 days with the documents you need named in it, and the investigation record holds what was examined rather than only what was concluded.
Dispose and close
Payment, declination or a firm compromise offer inside 120 days, a status letter every 60 days while it stays open, and the salvage proceeds recorded against the same file.
Freight claims management software questions, answered
Key terms
- What is a freight claim?
- It is a written demand on a carrier for loss, damage, injury or delay to a shipment. Under 49 CFR 370.3 it has to identify the shipment, assert liability against the carrier and claim a specified or determinable amount of money. A note of damage on a delivery receipt does not on its own meet that test.
- What are the deadlines a carrier is working to?
- Acknowledge within 30 days under 49 CFR 370.5, then pay, decline or make a firm compromise settlement offer within 120 days under 370.9. If the claim is still open at 120 days, a written status update is due every 60 days after that.
How long does the claimant have?
It depends on the bill of lading, but 49 U.S.C. 14706 sets a floor. A carrier may not require a claim to be filed in less than 9 months, and may not cut off a civil action in less than 2 years from the written disallowance.
Does this pay the claim?
No. Payment happens wherever it happens today. This is the file underneath it: the date of receipt, the documents, the acknowledgment, the investigation record, the disposition and the salvage proceeds if there were any.
Can it handle claims we file as well as claims we receive?
Yes. A broker or a shipper works the same file from the other side, with the filing window from the bill of lading and the proof of what was sent and when, which is the part that decides a contested claim.
Why we are building this
We went looking for money that gets lost on a calendar rather than on the merits, and cargo claims kept coming up. The freight really was short, the invoice really is correct, and the file drifts past 120 days because it never got a number on the day it arrived. That is a record problem, and record problems are what we build. The regulations we read while scoping this are linked above, so you can check our reading of them instead of taking our word for it. If we have a step wrong, tell us and we will fix it.
Where the requirement comes from
Primary sources, straight from the regulators.
- 49 CFR 370.3, filing of claims The three minimum filing requirements and why a bad order report is not a claim.
- 49 CFR 370.5, acknowledgment of claims The 30 day acknowledgment, the separate file, the successive claim number and the date of receipt.
- 49 CFR 370.7, investigation of claims Which supporting documents the file needs and what has to be retained for a possible FMCSA inspection.
- 49 CFR 370.9, disposition of claims The 120 day disposition, the 60 day status letters and the depreciation rule for household goods.
- 49 U.S. Code 14706, liability of carriers under receipts and bills of lading The Carmack rule on actual loss, and the 9 month and 2 year floors a carrier cannot go below.
- 49 U.S. Code 14705, limitation on actions by and against carriers The 18 month charge and overcharge windows, the extensions, and when a cargo claim accrues.
How much does Neurobird Freight Claims Management cost?
Priced per operation because the clocks belong to the claim rather than to the person working it. Claims, documents and salvage lots are unlimited on the upper tiers.
- Up to 100 open claims
- Deadline clocks
- Document vault
- Disposition letters
- Unlimited claims
- Terminal level reporting
- Salvage lots
- Status letter automation
- Multiple operating companies
- Broker and carrier views
- Loss ratio reporting
- Priority support
Get free early access
Early access means we load your open claims, your terminals and your current claim numbering before you type anything, and the account stays free while we do it.
Straight answer on where this is: The software is in development. Nothing is purchasable today. Early access means you shape it and pay nothing while we build.
Prefer email? Write to office@neurobird.com and a person will reply. No autoresponder.