Dispatchers spend the afternoon on carrier portals and check calls, and billing spends the morning hunting for proof of delivery. Tracking updates itself, documents file themselves, and the team spends its time on loads that need a person.
A brokerage moving a few hundred loads a week checks on every one of them. Dispatchers log into carrier and tracking portals, call drivers, and type the status into the transportation management system. Customers email asking where their load is, and someone looks it up and replies.
Proof of delivery arrives as photos, emails and portal downloads. Billing cannot invoice until it is found, matched to the load and filed. Carrier invoices arrive in every format and get checked against the rate confirmation by hand. New carriers are onboarded by collecting the same six documents by email.
Call a fully loaded dispatcher $45,000 a year, as an illustration. Three dispatchers spending a third of their day on tracking and check calls is close to $45,000 a year on work a computer can do continuously.
We build tracking jobs that pull status from carrier portals and tracking providers throughout the day and write it into the TMS. Loads that are on time and on track are left alone. Loads that are late, stalled or missing an update go on the dispatcher's list with the last known location and the customer's delivery window.
Customer status requests are answered automatically from the same data, by email or a customer link. Dispatchers answer only the ones the data cannot.
Proof-of-delivery documents are picked up from every channel, matched to the load by the reference numbers on them, and filed. Billing gets a list of loads ready to invoice each morning. Carrier invoices are matched to rate confirmations, and only the differences reach a person.
Carrier onboarding is a form and a checklist: documents are requested, received, checked against expiry and authority data, and filed. A carrier becomes active when the checklist is complete.
The shape of a typical engagement, with the names left out. Hours are illustrations of what a team this size usually gets back.
Scenario 1
About 30 hours a week back
Before
Three dispatchers spend the afternoon logging into portals and calling drivers to update 300 loads. Most loads are fine. The two that are actually late get found when the customer calls.
After
Status is pulled automatically through the day and written to the TMS. Dispatchers see only the loads that are late, stalled or silent, with the last location and the delivery window, and call those.
Scenario 2
About 15 hours a week back
Before
PODs arrive as driver photos, carrier emails and portal downloads. A billing clerk searches for each one, matches it to the load and files it before invoicing. Invoices go out three to five days after delivery.
After
Documents are collected from every channel, matched to loads by reference number and filed. Billing gets a ready-to-invoice list each morning. Invoices go out the day after delivery.
Scenario 3
About 8 hours a week back
Before
Carrier invoices are compared to rate confirmations one at a time. Accessorials get paid that were never agreed, and short-paid carriers call to complain.
After
Every invoice is matched to its rate confirmation automatically. Matches are approved for payment. Differences are listed with the load, the amount and the line item that is off.
Plain automation
Automate looking up statuses on vendor and carrier portals
An automation checks every portal overnight and hands the team only the exceptions.
Automation, AI where needed
Automate status checks and follow-up calls that put someone on hold every afternoon
The checks happen on their own. Exceptions come back with everything already filled in.
Automation, AI where needed
Automate renaming, sorting and filing documents that arrive by email
They land in the right place, named the right way, the moment they arrive.
Plain automation
Automate checking one system against another
Records processed, exceptions flagged, run before the day starts. Ran today in 0:48.
Set to a typical team doing this work by hand. Change it to match yours.
People doing this work
3
Hours each, per week
Half an hour counts. 40 is a full week.
12
Fully loaded cost per person, per year
Salary, benefits, taxes, overhead. $45,000 is an illustration; set it to yours.
$45,000
Time spent on this task
36 hrs / week
About 1,872 hours a year of a person's time.
These figures show the value of time spent on the task, not a project quote or guaranteed cash savings. We will help estimate what can realistically be automated.
Not sure which task first?
Half a day with your team. Every task, ranked by what it costs you.
The Automation Inventory. $500, credited in full toward your first build. Optional: if you already know the task, the evaluation and the quote are free.
Every morning, every Friday, or every time an order comes in. Small tasks and larger workflows are both welcome. The evaluation is free, and if we take it on, the first deliverable is running in your operation within 14 days, guaranteed.
Free evaluation. Fixed quote before work begins.
