u/Square_File_4617

Some of u pinged me on costs of automation, ROI, change mgmt, adoption, and vendor details!

To give a quick high-level view, we built an AI pipeline with our vendor that ingests messy hospital POs/case sheets, auto-matches SKUs and contracted prices, and intercepts mismatches before orders hit the ERP. It continuously learns from CSR feedback—we went from 55% to 85% auto-created sales orders in just two weeks, while stopping the re-bill nightmare and giving me 100% real-time pipeline visibility.

Since we’re PE-backed, our PE company actually had us put together a complete teardown report covering the whole implementation—exact ROI numbers, vendor pros/cons, cost breakdown, and how we handled CSR change management, so that they can share it with theeir other portoflio companies. i can share subset of those items which i am allowed to share..

If you want a copy of the report, just ping me and I’ll send it over!

totally agree on the edge-case concern. we had the exact same fear given how messy hospital billing is.

we took the plunge recently and the results surprised us. started at ~55% automation on week one, but because the software ingested our tribal context and CSR feedback, we hit ~85% auto-created sales orders within a few weeks. main gain for me as CFO wasn't just trimming DSO days—it was finally getting 100% real-time visibility into order volumes and pricing mismatches before they turn into bad invoices.

if you’re looking into PO->Invoice automation, happy to compare notes on what worked for our stack!

100% felt this. internal change management was honestly harder than the technical integration.

our CSR team was super lukewarm at first because they genuinely thought the AI was coming to replace their jobs. I had to spend a lot of time motivating the team and shifting the narrative: this isn't replacing them, it's taking away the mindless line-by-line SKU matching so they aren't drowning in data entry.

what won them over was starting small—we ran it alongside just one CSR first. once she saw the AI learning her comments and taking the grunt work off her plate (going from 55% to 85% automation in a couple of weeks), the rest of the team actually wanted in.

did you run into pushback from your ops/CSR side, or is it more of an IT bottleneck for you guys?

man, that was our single biggest worry going in. in med device, hospital POs and reps' handwritten case sheets are an absolute disaster, and every hospital has its own tribal pricing rules.

we originally thought about a pure service provider, but ended up going with a vendor that took a product approach with AI that could actually ingest contextual rules.

the biggest lesson for us: it’s an iterative loop. when we went live with just one CSR's email queue, we were only hitting about 55% auto-creation. but as she corrected errors and dropped in notes/comments, the system kept learning those edge-case rules. two weeks in, we shot up to 85% of sales orders auto-created in the ERP without manual entry.

catching those pricing mismatches before the sales order is generated completely stopped the re-bill nightmare for those orders. happy to share how we mapped out those tribal rules if you're wrestling with the same setup!

thanks for sharing. so when you signed yourself, did they cross check who signed it during payment.. Did you have any problem getting paid when you sign.. or getting paid at all?

Do you have experience working in smaller or mid size companies? I may know some folks that may need..

thanks for sharing details. So beyond visibilkity, was there any gain in terms of faster processing? did it free up 'labor'? also did you have it custom built or use some SaaS tool? we could not fiund any of the vendor tools work as we had way too much business rules :)

do i get paid only when i do meetings? or i get a monthly retainer? i know some folks they work on a retaienr basis.. or is it commission only position?

this is a good insight.. what is a 'meaningful size'? 20 headcount? 100... ?
I know a 4 person hybrid friehgt agent, who is half-techi half broker and built his own TMS using claude.. but another broker with 15 people, came to us to build some stuff...

The people who actually "enjoy" cold calling usually don't enjoy the repetitive dials—they enjoy the high-octane feedback loop and gamification of it.

Cold calling is the fastest way to test messaging, handle objections in real time, and get a direct "yes" or "no" instead of sending 500 emails into an automated void.

The reps who thrive on cold calls usually share three things:

The biggest shift from "empty promises" to actionable capacity planning is getting them to commit to lead time + tenders, not just load counts.

A customer who actually wants you to hold capacity will give you:

If a shipper gives you daily lane schedules and agrees to pay a deadhead/cancellation fee if a "confirmed" load falls off within 24 hours of pickup, that’s when you know their forecast is real and you can comfortably commit dedicated power.

The classic unhinged ones always fall into three categories:

1. The Revenge Guard: "Carrier was 30 minutes late to delivery, driver was rude, do not use." (Clear case of a broker using Freight Guard as a review site instead of reporting actual fraud/breach).
2. The hostage situation: "Carrier refused to deliver $50k of electronics until we paid $1,500 in detention upfront."
3. The phantom driver: "Dispatched MC 12345, track showed driver in Texas, actual truck showed up in Ohio with a completely different company name on the door."

For training your team, the big DO / DON'T rule to teach them:

• DO look at the response from the carrier as much as the report itself. A professional, documented rebuttal with signed BOLs or timestamped GPS proof tells you way more than the initial broker rant.
• DON'T auto-reject based on a single Freight Guard without reading the filing date—a 4-year-old "hostage/detention dispute" under old management shouldn't burn a solid carrier today, but a 2-week-old double-brokering report is an immediate hard stop.

Culture like that almost never turns around from the bottom up.

If a brokerage is actively turning down quotes from a solid, recurring shipper, it usually points to a much bigger underlying issue—either they’re severely understaffed on ops, having serious cash flow/credit line constraints with carrier pay, or management has completely checked out.

A higher base is great for short-term stability, but in freight sales, your career health depends on building and servicing accounts. If ops won't price or cover your wins, your base won't save you when leadership eventually looks at unit economics or overall desk profitability.

On handling the account: Price it and work it yourself if your contract allows, but keep that relationship warm on a personal level. If you do end up making another move, that's an account that trusts you, not the logo on your business card.

We just launched our first workflow automations based on feedback from various forums and our pilot customers.

Here's what's live:
1. Inbox AI Assistant Reads your emails, classifies them, and takes action. You feed it rules, and it drafts replies or updates your TMS / WMS / CRM / QuickBooks (via API or non-API). Starting with driver receipts, PODs, and BOLs. More coming. Goal is to be a Swiss Army knife for your inbox and cut email time by 80%.

*2. Tender Automation* — Create tenders from shipper emails, auto-outreach to carriers, compare bids, and answer questions.

Here's a quick demo of some features, would love your feedback:

https://youtu.be/1ZKcmKPZWWU

You are absolutely right. I guess spamming is not the right word, Since i don’t run trucking business, i only help with provider software to help him run his business, hence was not correctly phrased it. He does get lot of messages and responds immediately, but he does want to automate response part of them

Thanks to all for sharing my comments. Looks like I will pause and pass suggestions to him and not build. In past when we started talking abot project, he told me, he hates transport pro,
Anyway I am going to tell him to look at transport pro again for AI stuff [last time he showed me, it really looked old school and not like the ai stuff blueberry shared, may be older version].

he is also looking at other tools.. What about other tools Vooma, happyrobot, augment.. anyone is using them and find anything good?

we recently developed two inbox automation tools designed to cut down manual data entry for freight operations. Coupe of freight brokers are already live.. here is what it does

here is quick look-n-feel/demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxMm_3ln6j8

1. RFQ & Booking Automation: Reads incoming shipper tender emails, blasts out to matching carriers (database or DAT), negotiates rate replies, and books the load.
2. Post-Load Doc Processing: Automatically captures, validates, and routes PODs/paperwork from email to your TMS.

Setup is pretty straightforward since it works directly through your email using custom rules configured for your workflow.

We’re offering a 2-week free trial for sub members to test it out on real workflows—pay-per-use only if you decide to keep using it afterward. Let me know if you'd like to try a trial run!

DM me if interested

Schedulers live in the operational trenches—dealing with terminal constraints, vessel delays, and pipeline schedules. A Supply Chain degree prepares you much better for that day-to-day reality than a standard Finance degree.

If you want to stand out regardless of your degree, learn basic Python/SQL for data handling and get familiar with energy transport fundamentals (pipelines, Jones Act, vessel charters). AI might automate basic nominations down the road, but real-time exception handling and operational troubleshooting aren't going anywhere.

Three loads in your first two weeks isn't a bad start at all—there's a steep learning curve in expedited shipping.

A big part of the friction in your current process is the order of operations. Messaging 50 drivers at once creates a bottleneck where you lose momentum waiting for responses while the broker moves on to someone else. Instead, try locking in driver availability or location before you bid, or build a core group of 3–5 dependable drivers you know the exact location and capacity of at any given time.

Also, keep in mind DAT is heavily built for standard dry van/reefer freight. Specialized expedited platforms like Sylectus or RXO might give you much better traction for Sprinter vans. Hang in there—it gets much easier once you build a rhythm!

The length (64") is what’s killing you on parcel, but LTL is going to hammer you on dimensional weight and residential surcharges (where liftgate is almost always bundled by default).

Since body panels are light, try quoting through Pirate Ship or Shippo using UPS Ground or FedEx Ground. They pass down discounted commercial rates, and while you’ll still hit UPS/FedEx oversize fees for anything over 48” or 60”, it usually still lands noticeably cheaper than a full LTL rate + resi fee + liftgate fee.

Also, if you do end up using LTL, see if the customer can pick it up at the local carrier terminal—that completely removes both the residential and liftgate charges!

Respect the hustle and the military background, Sean. The "guru course" space in freight is predatory, and new brokers need actual operational tools instead of $2,000 motivational slideshows.

That said, as an insurance guy moving into freight, keep in mind why those big broker subreddits hit you with the ban hammer: self-promotion and "free resource vault" leads are the oldest funnel in the book, and mods usually don't care if the intent is good or if it's "regular-ass English"—they just see self-plugging links.

Focusing on the insurance/compliance blind spots is actually where you can add massive value. Most new brokers get completely wrecked early on because they don't understand contingent cargo policy exclusions, reefer breakdown endorsements, or how bad carrier vetting leaves them wide open to vicarious liability. If your group actually teaches new guys how to survive double-brokering scams and coverage loopholes instead of just pitching MC setups, people will naturally stick around.

Best of luck getting it off the ground.

Holding payment on Load #1 to cover offset damages on Load #2 is common practice for shippers, but doing so without a clear short-pay agreement or contract clause is illegal off-setting.

Here is how to handle this step-by-step:

1. Review Your Rate Confirmation & Broker/Shipper Agreement: Check if there is a specific clause regarding short-paying for set-off damages, cancelled loads, or late recovery costs. If your agreement doesn't explicitly grant them the right to set off losses against previous invoices, they cannot legally withhold payment on a completed load.
2. Request the Carrier's Paid Invoice/BOL: Ask the shipper for documented proof of the $3,000 extra cost (e.g., the replacement carrier's rate con and paid invoice). Shippers often throw out a round number like "$3,000" to intimidate you into walking away from your invoice. Force them to justify the math.
3. Issue a Formal Demand Letter / Intent to File on Bond: Send an official notice stating that Load #1 was delivered, signed, and accepted with no claims, making the balance due immediately. Inform them that if the invoice isn't paid within 7 to 10 days, you will proceed with filing against their carrier/broker bond or sending the file to legal collection.
4. Negotiate a Settlement (If Necessary): If the replacement load truly cost an extra $3,000 and you failed to meet your agreed pickup/delivery window without timely notice, a court or arbitrator might find you liable for consequential damages. If Load #1 pays $5,000, it may be worth offering a partial credit on the delta just to collect the remaining balance and close the file.

TransCredit is one of the big three credit bureaus that carrier factoring companies look at (alongside Ansonia and RTS/TIA), so having a good score there is huge for getting loads booked without getting flagged. However, simply paying TransCredit for a subscription won't automatically build your credit score—they calculate your rating based on reported payment data from vendors and carrier factoring companies.

To build a strong TransCredit rating quickly, keep these core strategies in mind:

1. Target Fast Days-to-Pay (DTP): TransCredit heavily weights your average DTP. Keeping your payment cycle under 28 days—or offering QuickPay—generates immediate positive data points.
2. Utilize Large Carrier Factoring Companies: Small owner-operators rarely report payment data to bureaus, but major factoring firms (Triumph, RTS, OTR Capital) report aging reports directly to TransCredit. Every time you pay a major factoring company on time, it automatically builds your profile.
3. Report Trade References: When starting out with low load volume, submit trade references directly to TransCredit. Your software vendors (load boards, TMS, tech subscriptions) can report positive payment history to help kickstart your score before you have high freight volume.
4. Mind the Time-in-Business Metric: TransCredit factors in time active under your MC/DOT number. Every 6 months of active, complaint-free operation automatically bumps your scoring potential.

Focus on paying factoring companies consistently and on time—the score on TransCredit will take care of itself.

Finding a $100k duplicate billing error isn't just a great line on a resume—it shows the exact kind of detail-oriented muscle memory that shippers and 3PLs are desperately missing right now. With freight billing getting increasingly complex across accessorials, unexpected reweighs, and carrier disputes, having someone who can immediately untangle an aged invoice backlog is worth their weight in gold.

If you haven't already, definitely connect with freight audit and payment (FAP) specialists like Cass Information Systems, Intelligent Audit, or Trax Technologies, alongside major 3PL accounting teams. Backlog cleanup and audit accuracy directly impact bottom-line margins, so your hands-on experience with tools like TriumphPay and U.S. Bank Freight Payment will open doors fast. Best of luck with the search!

Research is easy—it’s finding an actual trigger that makes the research matter that’s hard. Spending two hours reading an SEC 10-K or stalking a shipping manager on LinkedIn means zero if they have a dedicated fleet or a 5-year primary contract locked up with C.H. Robinson.

For a prospect to actually be worth chasing, they usually need three things:

1. Capacity Vulnerability: They move spot/seasonal freight, or their product has strict requirements (flatbed, temp-control, expedited) where standard asset carriers routinely fail them.
2. Operational Pain over Rate Pain: If a prospect's first question is "what's your rate on lane X?", run. You're just being used as a free rate-check to keep their incumbent honest. The high-value prospect is the guy who says "our current guys keep dropping the ball on Friday afternoon pickups."
3. Decentralized Decision Making: Chasing massive enterprise accounts where procurement controls routing guides from a corporate tower in another state is a waste of life. Targeting regional facilities where the local plant manager or shipping clerk actually has spot-allocation authority is where the gold is.

The real headache isn't finding the company—it's filtering out the "fake leads" that sound like freight but will never let a new broker touch a single load.