Customer story

A US import freight forwarder, lot creation and filing preparation done by AI agents

Ocean import and domestic trucking for a lean team. The agents read the same inbox the team already uses and do the prep. A person on the team reviews every lot and files every customs filing.

Stacked containers and a straddle carrier at a terminal
Illustrative footage.
Source documentsLot in the TMS
Master billReferences
House billParties
Packing listContainers and pieces
Arrival noticeCharge lines
IllustrationThe documents the agent reads for each lot, and what it creates from them.
The numbers

Their own operating figures

30 min → seconds

Lot creation, per shipment, across 25+ jobs a week.

15 min → seconds

Filing preparation, per shipment, across 20 filings a week.

About two days a week

Team time back, every week, from removing the keying.

The operation

Two back-office jobs, done by hand, every day

This forwarder runs ocean import and domestic trucking for a lean team. Every booking, pre-alert, bill of lading, and worksheet landed in a shared inbox and got keyed into the TMS by hand, one lot at a time, one filing at a time. That is roughly 25 lots and 20 filings a week. Lot creation ran about 30 minutes per shipment. Filing preparation ran about 15 minutes per shipment. Both are the kind of work a small team does correctly every time and still loses hours to.

What changed

The agents do the prep. The team reviews.

TIO’s agents read the same inbox the team already uses. When a booking or worksheet comes in, an agent prepares the filing as a draft and the Order Entry Agent creates the lot in the forwarder’s TMS. The team gets a review email that shows every field and checks it against the source document. A person on the team files every customs filing. Lot creation dropped from about 30 minutes to seconds. Filing preparation dropped from about 15 minutes to seconds. Across the week that is close to two days of work back for the team.

The rollout

The team did not learn a new platform. They kept doing what they already did: email the work in. The agent does the reading and the keying; the team does the reviewing.

The review posture

The Order Entry Agent creates the lot and sends a review email that shows every field. A party it cannot match goes to a person. An agent prepares each customs filing as a draft, and a person on the team reviews and files it.

In their words

“Easiest software rollout we’ve done”

“We just email the AI agents instead of learning a whole new system, and they save us close to two days a week. Lot creation and ISF filing went from half an hour to seconds. Easiest software rollout we’ve done.”

Operations lead, US import freight forwarder

Where the work happens.

All solutions
OceanFrom the pre-alert and the bills to a finished lot with its charge lines.AirThe same order entry, on air documents and air timelines.Trucking and domesticFrom the quote to the proof of delivery, by email.WarehousingThe delivery order arrives by email. An agent enters it.

See it on your own shipments.

Bring a real document and watch an agent take it to a finished draft while you’re on the call.

Book a demo