AI for freight forwarders and shipping lines.
We build AI for freight forwarders, carriers and shipping lines that takes over the reading, keying and chasing behind every shipment. Bookings, carrier updates and customs data flow into your TMS, and your operators decide on the exceptions.
Where the work gets stuck
Orders arrive in every format
Booking requests come in as emails, PDFs, spreadsheets and EDIFACT messages, and someone retypes them into CargoWise or Soloplan before any planning starts.
Status lives in a dozen portals
Carriers, terminals and shipping lines each report milestones in their own way. Operators refresh portals and phone subcontractors to find out whether a load is late.
Customs data is checked by hand
Commercial invoices and packing lists have to be matched to HS codes, values and origins before an AGS, DMS or NCTS declaration goes out, and one wrong field holds the goods at the border.
What we build for freight and shipping
Each one is scoped around your systems and rules, and each one keeps a person in charge of the decisions that matter.
Booking intake from email and PDF
Transport orders, quotes and shipping instructions are read, validated against customer master data and created as draft bookings in your TMS. Operators confirm the drafts, and every correction is logged and added to the test set.
Shipment exception desk
An agent watches carrier, terminal and track and trace feeds, spots a missed milestone, works out the likely cause and drafts the customer update. Planners approve the message and choose the recovery option.
Customs declaration preparation
Invoice lines are classified against HS codes with the reasoning attached, and values and origins are checked against the order before the declaration data is filed in your customs software. A customs specialist signs off every declaration.
Carrier and EDI connections
EDIFACT (IFTMIN, IFTSTA), carrier APIs, project44 and eCMR platforms are connected to your TMS through one monitored integration layer. Failed messages are queued, retried and flagged to an operator.
Customer shipment portal
A portal where shippers book, upload documents, follow milestones and download PODs and invoices, fed directly from your operational systems. Your customer service team answers fewer where-is-my-shipment calls.
Tariff and contract search
Rate sheets, surcharge tables and carrier contracts made searchable in plain language, with every answer linked to the clause it came from. Sales and pricing staff quote from the current terms.
Built around the rules
What we design for from the first week. These notes are general information and are not legal advice, and your legal and compliance people keep the final word.
Union Customs Code
Declaration data keeps a full trail from source document to filed field, and a licensed declarant stays responsible for what is submitted.
eFTI regulation and eCMR
Authorities across the EU must accept electronic freight information from certified eFTI platforms from July 2027. We structure consignment data so it can move to those platforms and to eCMR without rework.
ADR for dangerous goods
Shipments with UN numbers are routed to a qualified person, and automation never removes or overrides a dangerous goods check.
NIS2 and GDPR
Parts of transport are in scope of NIS2, including shipping companies, port operators, rail undertakings and road traffic system operators. The Netherlands implements it through the Cyberbeveiligingswet, in force since 15 August 2026, and your legal team confirms whether you are in scope. We design for access control, logging and incident reporting, and minimise the driver and contact data sent to models.
Works with what you run
If a system has an API, a database, an export or an inbox, we can build on it. These are the systems common in this sector.
- CargoWise
- Descartes
- Transporeon
- Soloplan CarLo
- Alpega
- project44
- AGS and DMS (Dutch customs)
- NCTS
- EDIFACT EDI
- eCMR platforms
Where to start
Transport order intake for one customer segment
We start with the orders that cost your operators the most typing: one mailbox, the customers who send PDFs or spreadsheets, and one TMS. It is narrow enough to measure and touches the process every later build depends on.
Talk it throughWhat it includes
- Extraction of order fields from email and PDF
- Validation against customer and address master data
- Draft bookings created in your TMS
- Review screen with correction tracking
Related work
Guides
AI readiness checklist: what to answer before your first agent goes live
The questions to answer before your first AI agent handles real work, from process and data to approvals, monitoring and ownership.
10 min read
AI vendor security questionnaire: what to ask before you buy or build
The questions to ask an AI vendor, or your own team, about data, model providers, access, logging, quality, incidents, GDPR and exit, and how to score the answers.
8 min read
Further reading
PDF data extraction with LLMs: invoices and forms
How to use LLMs for PDF data extraction: turning invoices and forms into reliable structured data with schemas, validation and a review queue for the cases that need a person.
5 min read
Human-in-the-loop AI agents: design patterns for real operations
How we keep a human in the loop when AI agents run on live systems: approval checkpoints, confidence thresholds, tool permissions, audit trails and fallbacks.
5 min read
LLM evals: testing AI before every release
A practical approach to LLM evals: build a test set from real cases, combine code checks with model grading, and block releases that regress.
5 min read
Common questions
Yes. We build on CargoWise eAdaptor and its XML interfaces, and on the APIs of other TMS platforms such as Descartes and Soloplan. Where a system only offers file exports or EDI, we build the connector around that.
We prepare and check the declaration data and put it in front of your customs specialist with the source documents alongside. Submission stays with the declarant, who remains accountable for it.
Many subcontractors report by email or phone. We read those emails into structured milestones, and where a carrier sends nothing, the agent drafts the chase message for an operator to send.
A narrow first build such as order intake for one segment usually runs in weeks, with most of the effort going into access to your TMS and collecting real historical orders to test against. We give a timeline after we have seen your systems.
Yes. We build around your TMS through its supported interfaces and agree with your supplier where configuration ends and our integration begins.