Free automation checklist
Freight Forwarding Automation Checklist
Use this checklist to find the quoting, booking and shipment-update work your operations team still handles by hand. Tick each item that is not automated yet.
Quotes and bookings
- Quote requests from email and web forms are captured in one place with the key fields extracted.
- Carrier rates are pulled or compared without copying between spreadsheets.
- Accepted quotes become bookings in your TMS without retyping.
Shipment visibility
- Tracking events from carriers update the shipment record automatically.
- Customers get proactive updates at key milestones (departed, arrived, customs cleared, delivered).
- Delays and exceptions alert the right coordinator instead of waiting for a customer call.
Documents and billing
- Bills of lading, commercial invoices and packing lists are filed to the right shipment automatically.
- Missing or mismatched documents are flagged before cutoff.
- Invoices are created from shipment data when a job closes, and overdue invoices get reminders.
- Carrier invoices are matched against the quoted cost, and differences are flagged.
Before you automate
- You know which system is the source of truth for each shipment field.
- Each automation has a fallback so a missed carrier update does not stop the workflow.
Where to start
Count how many "where is my shipment" emails your team answers each week. If it is more than a handful, proactive updates are the first win.
Not sure which box to tackle first?
Tell me your biggest manual task and I'll send back one specific automation idea, free. Or see how I approach freight & logistics automation.