01
"Where is my shipment?" all day
Customer service teams spend most of their time looking up status in three portals and reading it back to customers.
Logistics & Supply Chain
Know about the delay before your customer does.
Technology, Software and AI Automation for Logistics and Supply Chain
Most logistics support work is people asking where something is. The answer exists in a carrier feed, a scan or a driver app; it just is not in front of whoever picks up the phone.
- 06:30Overnight scans are missingTwelve shipments have no update, and nobody knows which are actually late.
- 09:00Tracking calls beginCustomer service opens four carrier portals for every call.
- 11:45Invoices and bills of lading arriveA clerk types them into the TMS field by field.
- 15:00A key account escalatesTheir shipment was stuck at a hub for a day, and they found out first.
- 20:00Proof of delivery photosThey sit in drivers’ phones, so invoicing waits.
01Strategize
TMS, WMS and ERP choices, integration architecture with carriers and customers, and whether the answer is a new platform or better data between the ones already running.
Explore 02BuildCustomer tracking portals, dispatch and proof-of-delivery apps, rate engines and the internal tools that replace spreadsheet planning.
Explore 03AutomateShipment status enquiries, exception alerts, document processing and customer updates driven by events instead of phone calls.
Explore 04RunMonitoring of EDI and API feeds, tracking uptime, backups and incident response for systems that run around the clock.
ExploreThe short answer
How does AI automation work in logistics?
In logistics, automation reads events from the TMS, WMS, carrier APIs and driver apps, answers shipment questions from that live data, and acts on exceptions such as missed pickups, failed deliveries or customs holds before the customer has to ask. Document-heavy steps like invoices, bills of lading and delivery notes are extracted and checked automatically. The usual starting point is shipment-status enquiries, because they are high volume and fully answerable from data the business already collects.
- Workflows mapped
- 6
- Tasks safe to automate
- 9
- Kept with people
- 6
- Systems we connect
- 12+
What we usually find
Six problems that show up in almost every logistics & supply chain business
02
Exceptions are found late
A missed pickup or failed delivery is discovered when the customer complains, not when the scan failed to arrive.
03
Paperwork is re-typed
Invoices, bills of lading, packing lists and proof of delivery arrive as PDFs and photos and are keyed in by hand.
04
Carrier data is inconsistent
Every carrier and partner sends status in a different format, some by email.
05
Planning lives in spreadsheets
Loads, routes and capacity are planned in files that only one planner fully understands.
06
Customers want visibility
Large shippers expect a portal and proactive alerts, and switch providers when they do not get them.
Workflows
What the work looks like once it is automated
Pick a workflow to see each step. Every one reads from your real systems, and hands over to a person where the rules say it should.
Shipment status enquiry
- 1
Identify the shipment by reference, email or phone
- 2
Read the latest carrier and scan events
- 3
Answer with the real ETA
- 4
Subscribe the customer to updates.
Every step is logged, and anything outside policy goes to a person.
Exception handling
- 1
Detect a missed scan, failed delivery or delay
- 2
Diagnose the cause
- 3
Rebook or alert the customer and operations
- 4
Track to resolution.
Every step is logged, and anything outside policy goes to a person.
Proof of delivery
- 1
Capture photo, signature and location in the driver app
- 2
Attach to the order
- 3
Trigger invoicing.
Every step is logged, and anything outside policy goes to a person.
Document extraction
- 1
Read invoices, bills of lading and customs forms
- 2
Extract fields
- 3
Validate against the order
- 4
Flag mismatches.
Every step is logged, and anything outside policy goes to a person.
Carrier status normalisation
- 1
Receive feeds by API, EDI and email
- 2
Map to one status model
- 3
Update the TMS and customer portal.
Every step is logged, and anything outside policy goes to a person.
Freight quote requests
- 1
Capture lane, weight and service
- 2
Price from the rate card
- 3
Return a quote or route unusual requests to a person.
Every step is logged, and anything outside policy goes to a person.
Reference architecture
How the pieces fit together
Automation is only as good as what it can see. This is the shape we build towards in logistics & supply chain: channels on top, your systems of record underneath, and people where judgement is needed.
ChannelsWhere questions and events start.
- Customer portal
- Phone
- EDI partners
Operational truthWhat must be readable.
- TMS
- WMS
- Carrier feeds
- Telematics
- Document store
AutomationNormalise, detect, act.
- Status normaliser
- Exception detector
- Document extractor
- Quote engine
- Proactive alerts
PeopleWhere judgement matters.
- Control tower
- Customer service
- Claims team
- Key account managers
Where the line sits
What software handles, and what stays with your people
Handled automatically
- Shipment status and ETA questions
- Delay and exception notifications
- Delivery rescheduling requests
- Proof of delivery retrieval
- Invoice and document data entry
- Carrier status mapping
- Standard lane quotes
- Appointment and slot booking
- Ticket classification and routing
Always a person
- Claims for loss or damage
- Customs and compliance decisions
- Pricing for non-standard freight
- Escalations from key accounts
- Driver and safety incidents
- Anything involving dangerous goods
Advice before you spend
Three technology decisions logistics & supply chain businesses often get wrong
Replace the TMS?
Rarely the first move. Normalising carrier data and connecting systems usually delivers more, sooner, with far less risk.
Customer portal or proactive alerts?
Both, but alerts first. Telling customers before they ask removes the call entirely.
What to automate first?
Shipment status enquiries and exception alerts. They drive most inbound contact.
What to measure
Four numbers that tell you whether technology is helping. We take a baseline before any work starts.
Status enquiries per 100 shipments
The clearest measure of visibility gaps.
Exception detection time
How long between a problem happening and someone knowing.
Documents keyed manually
Time and error risk that extraction removes.
POD-to-invoice time
Cash tied up waiting for paperwork.
Where it fits
Common starting points
3PLs and fulfilment centres
Answer client and consumer tracking questions from the WMS and carrier data automatically.
Freight forwarders
Extract and check shipping documents and keep shippers updated through every milestone.
Last-mile delivery
Rescheduling, failed delivery follow-up and proof of delivery without call-centre load.
Distributors with own fleets
Dispatch, route sheets and delivery confirmation connected to the ERP.
Related work
Systems we have built
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Read the case studyOur carriers send status in completely different formats. Is that a problem?
It is the normal starting point. We map every feed, whether API, EDI, CSV or email, to one internal status model. Once that exists, tracking, alerts and customer answers all work from the same data.
Do we need to replace our TMS?
Rarely. Most problems we see are about the data flowing between an adequate TMS and everything around it. Replacement is a big, risky project and we would only recommend it when the current system genuinely blocks the business.
How accurate is document extraction?
Good enough to remove most typing, not good enough to skip checks entirely. We validate extracted fields against the order and flag mismatches for a person, and we measure accuracy on your real documents before relying on it.
Can customers get their own tracking portal?
Yes. A branded portal showing live status, documents and proof of delivery is often the single biggest reduction in inbound calls, and large shippers increasingly expect one.
Tell us what is slowing your operation down.
One process, one system or one decision. An engineer who understands logistics & supply chain replies within one working day with how we would approach it, and whether it needs building at all.