Every load at a brokerage makes paper: the rate con, the BOL, the POD, the invoice, and sometimes a load tender email from the shipper. In most small brokerages, someone reads each one and types the numbers into the TMS by hand.
To see what that costs you, count the documents for one load. Time how long one takes to type and check. Multiply by your loads per week.
Here is an example. At 200 loads a week, 4 documents per load and 3 minutes per document, you get 40 hours. That is one person’s whole week spent copying numbers from one screen to another. Typos cost money too. A wrong rate means you pay the carrier the wrong amount. A wrong reference number means the shipper sends the invoice back.
There are four ways to fix this. Each one fits a different kind of brokerage.
1. Keep typing, but make it faster
This costs nothing. Make a short checklist of the fields you need from each document type, in the same order as the TMS screen. Use a second monitor so the PDF and the TMS sit side by side. Ask shippers who send the same lanes every week to send the data in a spreadsheet instead of a PDF.
Good for: brokerages with under 50 loads a week.
Downside: it is still typing, and it does not grow with you.
2. Hire offshore data entry
Some brokers send their documents to a data entry team in another country. It costs less per hour than hiring locally.
Good for: brokers who need help next week and don’t want to change their tools.
Downside: you pay per document, forever. You have to send customer and carrier data to an outside team. Mistakes still happen, and you find them late.
3. Buy an off-the-shelf AI tool
Several software companies now sell AI that reads freight documents, and some TMS vendors are adding it too. You pay a monthly fee, connect your inbox, and the tool pulls the data out.
Good for: brokers on a popular TMS whose documents look like everyone else’s.
Downside: these tools work best with the formats they were built for. If your shippers send odd PDFs, scanned faxes, or emails with the details in the body text, check how the tool handles them before you sign. Ask whether it can write into your TMS or only export a file.
Before you buy, send the vendor 10 of your worst documents and see what comes back.
4. Build one that fits your documents and your TMS
A custom system does the same job as option 3, but it is built around your documents, your customers and your TMS. It reads your inbox, pulls out the fields, and shows them on a review screen next to the document. Someone on your team checks the data and approves it. Then it goes into the TMS through an API or an import file.
Good for: brokers with unusual documents, an older TMS, or a few big customers who send everything in their own format.
Downside: it costs more up front and takes a few weeks to build. It only makes sense if a year or two of typing costs you more than the build.
How to choose
Start with the math above. If the answer is a few hours a week, go with option 1. If it is one or more full-time jobs, look at options 3 and 4. Try option 3 first with your worst documents. If it handles them, buy it. If it doesn’t, a custom build is worth a look.
Whatever you pick, keep a person checking the data before it goes into the TMS, at least for the first few months. AI reads documents well, but it still makes mistakes, and a wrong rate on a load is expensive.
Want to see how AI handles your own documents? Email 5 sample rate cons or BOLs to remus.cretu@sg12.cloud. Black out anything private. We will send back the data our system pulls out, free. You can read more about what we build for freight brokers.
Remus Cretu, sg12.cloud
