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Freight agent

Shipment exception updates

Every load watched against its appointment. When one runs late or at risk, it drafts the customer update in your voice and flags the ones a dispatcher has to act on.

  • $12,500 fixed
  • Live in 3 to 6 weeks
  • Yours to keep
Let’s build your agent How it works
The review screen for Shipment exception updates: four items, three done, and one (Misses window) waiting for the dispatcher, who is asked: Load 51902 will miss its 2pm appointment. Call the receiver to rebook?
How it works

A load running late and a customer who already knows.

Here’s a typical run, step by step: what automation handles, what the agent does, and the calls that stay with your team.

The workflow for Shipment exception updates, in 5 steps. It starts with “A load starts to slip” and ends with “Customer told, ETA logged”. Each step lists what automation, the agent and your team do there.
Shipment exception updatesA typical run
Starts withA load starts to slipLoad 51902, Memphis to Nashville, has sat near Jackson, TN for 40 minutes with a 2pm appointment.
Automation: Checks each tracking ping, ELD stop and logged check call against the load’s appointment, and flags 51902 as stopped.
~40h/mo

Step 1 of 5Watch the pings

  • Automation

    Checks each tracking ping, ELD stop and logged check call against the load’s appointment, and flags 51902 as stopped.

    Where the truck is and when it’s due are both numbers. Spotting that one has stopped moving is arithmetic.

Reads
  • Tracking
  • TMS
Writes
  • TMS

~40 hours a month back

The agent: Reads the stop, the miles left and the driver’s hours, and puts 51902 in Nashville at 5:05pm, three hours late.
~30h/mo

Step 2 of 5Work out the ETA

  • The agent

    Reads the stop, the miles left and the driver’s hours, and puts 51902 in Nashville at 5:05pm, three hours late.

    Forty minutes stopped could be fuel, a breakdown or a mandatory break. Each one means a different arrival.

Reads
  • Tracking
  • ELD
Writes
  • TMS

~30 hours a month back

Where teams differHow late counts as late is set per customer: fifteen minutes for a grocery DC, half a day for a steel yard.

Automation: Matches the new ETA to the receiver’s hours. A 5:05pm arrival misses the close, so it goes to the dispatcher.
IfYour team: Calls the receiver to rebook for the morning or to ask for a late slot, then logs the new appointment on the load.
~12h/mo

Step 3 of 5Check the window

  • Automation

    Matches the new ETA to the receiver’s hours. A 5:05pm arrival misses the close, so it goes to the dispatcher.

    The receiver’s hours are on file, and a time past closing is past closing.

  • Your teamIf it misses the window

    Calls the receiver to rebook for the morning or to ask for a late slot, then logs the new appointment on the load.

    Only someone who knows that receiver can ask for a favour, and a rebook reshapes the driver’s next day.

Reads
  • TMS
Writes
  • TMS

~12 hours a month back

Where teams differAt smaller carriers the dispatcher on the load makes the call. Bigger accounts often go to an account manager.

The agent: Writes to Brightwater with the new ETA and the new appointment, in the tone your reps already use with that customer.
~45h/mo

Step 4 of 5Write the update

  • The agent

    Writes to Brightwater with the new ETA and the new appointment, in the tone your reps already use with that customer.

    One customer wants two lines. Another wants the cause, the location and the next check-in. Same facts, a different note.

Reads
  • TMS
  • Past updates
Writes
  • Shared inbox

~45 hours a month back

Automation: Emails the update to Brightwater and logs the new ETA and appointment on load 51902 in the TMS.
~15h/mo

Step 5 of 5Send and log

  • Automation

    Emails the update to Brightwater and logs the new ETA and appointment on load 51902 in the TMS.

    Brightwater takes updates by email. That was decided once, not load by load.

Reads
  • TMS
Writes
  • TMS
  • Shared inbox

~15 hours a month back

Ends withCustomer told, ETA loggedBrightwater Foods has the new time and appointment, and both are logged on the load in the TMS.
Total~142h/mo

What changes

Customers hear about a late load from you, with a real arrival time. Dispatchers only get pulled in when a load needs rebooking, not for every slow mile.

  • 3steps automated
  • 2steps for the agent
  • 1call kept with your team

Pick any step to see what happens there and why it sits in that lane.

What it could be worth

~142 hours a month back

$64,800 a year in time

For a carrier running about 3,000 loads a month, one in seven of them late, at $38 an hour. We work out yours from your own volumes before you sign.

Let’s build your agent
What we customize with you

One proven agent, plugged into how you work.

Every team does this job a little differently, so we set these five with the people who do it today. We’ve done this in dozens of businesses, so we know where teams usually differ and ask about those first.

The agent

Same for every client
  • Follows the same proven steps
  • A person on every exception
  • Every decision logged
  • Tested on your past work first
  • Never rebooks or reassigns a load on its own

  1. Your systems

    Where the work comes in, and where the result goes.

    For this agentTracking from your ELD, visibility tool or carrier check calls, loads from your TMS.

  2. Your rules

    The limits and exceptions it works to.

    For this agentHow late counts as late for each customer, and which delays always need a dispatcher.

  3. Your team

    Who signs off, and who covers when they’re away.

    For this agentThe dispatcher on the load, the account manager for your biggest customers.

  4. Your channels

    Where your team hears from it.

    For this agentEmail or text to customers, Slack for your dispatchers.

  5. Your output

    What it hands back, in the format you already use.

    For this agentAn update sent and logged on the load, or a dispatcher alert with the facts.

Covering loads and finding a replacement truck stay with your dispatchers. Chasing PODs and billing the load is our POD and billing packets agent.

What you get

The agent, and everything that keeps it working.

  • The agentRunning on your systems, under your rules.
  • The review screenWhere the exceptions land for your dispatchers and customer service reps.
  • Your rulebookYour limits, exceptions and who signs off, in one place, often for the first time.
  • A test reportYour past loads in transit, run through it and checked against the number.
  • The runbookHow it works, what to check, and what to do if it stops.
  • 30 days of tuningAfter it goes live, through a full month of your real loads in transit.
The number we agree

Share of late loads where the customer heard from you before they asked. We measure it before we start, and again at day 30.

How we get there

Live in 3 to 6 weeks. About seven hours of your time.

We do the building. Your side: access, three months of tracking events and the updates your team sent, and a short weekly check-in.

  1. Before kickoff

    We send the access checklist.

    You, 2 hours. Access, an owner, and three months of tracking events and the updates your team sent.

  2. Weeks 1 to 2

    We connect your systems and set it up.

    You, 1 hour. Walk us through your rules.

  3. Weeks 2 to 4

    We test it on your past loads in transit.

    You, 1 hour. Review what it flagged.

  4. Weeks 3 to 6

    It runs beside your team, then goes live.

    You, 1¼ hours. Work from the review screen.

Then 30 days of tuning, with a short check-in each week, about two hours of yours. At day 30 we show you the number and hand everything over.

After it’s live

It keeps running whether or not we stay.

  • It runs in your accounts

    Your cloud, your systems, and an AI account in your name, billed by the provider at their rates.

  • Changes in the first 30 days are included

    A new rule, a changed limit, someone new signing off. That’s what tuning is for.

  • After that, your call

    Your team edits the rulebook, the care plan covers it, or a bigger change is quoted first.

Questions

About this agent.

Will it message customers about every small delay?
No. You set how late counts as late for each customer, and a slip that still makes the appointment stays quiet.
What if we don’t have live tracking on every load?
It works from what you have: ELD pings, a visibility tool, or check calls your team logs. A load with no update past your limit goes to a dispatcher.
Our process isn’t quite like this. Will it still work?
That’s the usual case. The job looks the same in most businesses, but the details never do. We map how your team does it today, then set the rules, systems and approvals to match. That’s what most of the 3 to 6 weeks are for.
How do we agree the number?
Together, before any work starts. For this agent it’s the share of late loads where the customer heard from you before they asked. We measure it before we start, and again at day 30.
What does it cost to run once it’s live?
Hosting and AI, paid straight to the providers, not through us. It usually runs 5x to 25x cheaper than doing the same work by hand, and we work out your figure from your real volumes before you sign.

Want customers to hear about a late load before they ask?

Tell us how your team handles loads in transit today. We’ll show you this agent on examples like yours, and whether it fits the fixed price.

Let’s build your agentBack to Logistics
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  • 3 to 6 weeksto live, then 30 days of tuning
  • $12,500fixed, per agent
  • Yours to keepno license fees
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Switchboard Agents$12,500 fixed · live in 3 to 6 weeks How it works Let’s build your agent