What happens when truckload volume grows faster than the team managing it?
For a fast-growing manufacturer shipping several full truckloads every day, the problem wasn’t finding people willing to work hard.
The problem was that too many people and too many manual steps were required to keep freight moving.
The company was generating approximately $110 million in annual sales and growing roughly 20% year over year. During its busiest shipping seasons, the logistics team needed to manage approximately 3–4 full truckloads per day, primarily dry van shipments moving from its Fort Wayne, Indiana distribution center to customers across the country.
Many shipments were going to major retailers such as Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s.
Their existing technology stack was already capable:
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ERP and order-management system
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RateLinx / ShipLinx transportation management technology
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Infios WMS
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EDI connections with major retail customers
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Existing truckload transportation providers
The problem wasn’t a lack of software.
The systems weren’t fully talking to each other for truckload execution.
That left employees filling the gaps manually.
The Challenge: 45+ Minutes of Human Work Per Truckload
The company’s truckload process required approximately 45 minutes or more of internal work per shipment.
And roughly 10 people had some involvement in FTL operations.
During normal periods, the team could keep up.
Peak season was different.
Approximately 40% of annual FTL volume occurred from April through June, with another major surge occurring around September and October.
At 3–4 truckloads per day, even 45 minutes of manual processing represents approximately:
2.25–3 hours of cumulative operational work every shipping day.
Over a 60-business-day peak period, that’s roughly:
135–180 hours of internal labor touching the truckload process.
And that’s before accounting for:
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Emails
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Rate requests
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Carrier selection
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Shipment entry
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Tendering
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Status requests
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Tracking updates
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Internal communication
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Customer communication
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Exceptions
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Billing reconciliation
More importantly, the process created a human dependency problem.
When everyone was available, the system worked.
When a key employee was sick, traveling, on vacation, or dealing with another operational problem, the process became much harder to manage.
And with the company growing approximately 20% annually, simply adding more people every time freight volume increased wasn’t an attractive long-term solution.
So we approached the problem differently.
Instead of replacing their existing systems, what if we simply connected them?
The Solution: An API Bridge Between Their TMS and Truckload Capacity
The goal was not to force the shipper into another piece of software.
It was to create an integration layer connecting the systems the company already used with the truckload rating, booking and tracking capabilities available through our GlobalTranz transportation network.
The proposed workflow looked like this:
ERP / Order System
↓
RateLinx / ShipLinx TMS
↓
Easy Logistics Truckload Integration Layer
↓
GlobalTranz / GTZship
↓
Truckload Carrier Network
↓
Tracking & Shipment Status
↓
RateLinx / ERP
Instead of employees repeatedly moving shipment information between systems, the integration layer does the repetitive work.
GlobalTranz already supports enterprise integrations between transportation technology and shipper ERP systems, while its transportation platform supports shipment rating, tendering and real-time tracking.
Learn about GlobalTranz enterprise integrations
Step 1: Automatically Create the Truckload Shipment
The workflow begins when an order becomes ready to ship.
Rather than requiring an employee to recreate the shipment manually inside another transportation platform, shipment data can flow from the existing ERP/TMS environment into the integration.
That data can include:
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Origin
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Destination
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Pickup date
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Delivery requirements
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Equipment type
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Weight
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Pallet count
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Commodity
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Customer information
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Reference numbers
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Special instructions
For this operation, the majority of shipments require standard dry-van equipment, making much of the shipment structure repeatable even though the actual lanes are frequently ad hoc.
Step 2: Request Truckload Pricing
Once the shipment is created, the integration sends the shipment requirements into the transportation network.
Instead of:
Employee → email → broker → response → spreadsheet/TMS → comparison
the workflow becomes:
TMS → integration → transportation network → quote returned to TMS
The logistics team can still maintain control over the final decision.
The difference is that employees no longer need to perform every administrative step required to get the information in front of them.
Step 3: Apply Business Rules
Automation doesn’t have to mean blindly selecting the cheapest truck.
The workflow can incorporate business rules.
For example:
If company fleet capacity is available and meets the required service parameters, route the shipment internally.
Otherwise:
Request external truckload capacity and pricing.
Additional rules could eventually consider:
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Price
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Carrier performance
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Transit requirements
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Pickup availability
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Customer requirements
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Preferred carriers
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Historical lane performance
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Maximum acceptable rate
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Internal fleet availability
This is where API automation becomes more powerful than simply adding another freight portal.
We’re automating the decision plumbing between systems.
Step 4: Book the Truck
Once a quote meets the company’s rules or is approved by the shipping team, the shipment can move into booking and tendering.
Shipment information already exists.
There is no reason for another employee to re-key the same information.
The objective is:
Approve → Book
rather than:
Approve → open another system → enter shipment → verify information → tender shipment → copy confirmation information back into the TMS.
The GlobalTranz TMS itself supports rating, shipment creation, tendering and shipment lifecycle management, giving us a transportation platform on the other side of the integration capable of executing the freight.
Step 5: Push Tracking Back Into the Existing TMS
Booking the truck only solves half of the problem.
Once freight leaves the dock, employees traditionally begin another manual process:
Where’s the truck?
A properly integrated workflow pushes tracking events back into the system the shipper already uses.
That means employees don’t have to continually jump between systems or send emails simply to determine shipment status.
GlobalTranz supports real-time tracking and notifications and describes its TMS as providing shipment visibility from booking through invoice.
The desired workflow becomes:
Carrier / Tracking Data
↓
GlobalTranz
↓
Integration Layer
↓
RateLinx TMS
↓
Operations Team
The team’s existing system remains the operational view.
We’re simply feeding it better data automatically.
Step 6: Close the Loop With the ERP
Once the shipment is completed, relevant shipment and cost information can ultimately flow back toward the company’s ERP/accounting environment.
That creates the foundation for a much larger closed-loop transportation workflow:
Order → Rate → Select → Book → Tender → Track → Deliver → Reconcile
with people managing the exceptions rather than manually executing every step.
The Goal Isn’t “No People.”
It’s No Unnecessary Human Touches.
This distinction matters.
Truckload transportation will always produce exceptions.
A carrier cancels.
A pickup appointment changes.
A customer needs something unusual.
Weather interrupts a lane.
Capacity disappears.
A shipment becomes urgent.
Those are exactly the situations where experienced logistics people provide value.
But highly trained employees shouldn’t spend their day copying addresses, requesting routine rates, recreating shipments and manually checking tracking websites.
Automate the predictable work.
Put people on the exceptions.
What Could This Mean for a 3–4 Load-Per-Day Shipper?
The original workflow required approximately 45+ minutes of internal effort per truckload.
At four shipments per day:
4 loads × 45 minutes = 3 hours/day
Over approximately 120 peak-season shipping days:
≈360 hours of potential truckload-processing activity
And the company is growing roughly 20% annually.
If shipment volume follows company growth, four daily loads eventually become approximately:
4.8 loads/day
Then:
5.8 loads/day
Then:
6.9 loads/day
Without process automation, operational workload tends to grow alongside shipment volume.
With automation, the relationship can change.
Shipment volume can grow without administrative headcount having to grow at the same rate.
That’s the real ROI.
There’s Another Benefit: Operational Resilience
The company identified another issue that doesn’t show up neatly in an ROI spreadsheet.
The team was already stretched thin.
When critical employees were away, managing peak-season truckload volume became much harder.
API automation creates a layer of operational resilience.
The system doesn’t:
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Call in sick
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Take vacation
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Forget to request a rate
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Forget to update the TMS
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Get overwhelmed because three loads appeared simultaneously
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Re-key an address incorrectly
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Spend 20 minutes searching through emails
The people remain in control.
But the machinery underneath them keeps running.
Why We Didn’t Recommend Replacing Their Existing Technology
This may be the most important part of the project.
The company had already invested in ERP, WMS, TMS and EDI infrastructure.
They didn’t need another giant software implementation.
They needed connectivity.
RateLinx describes its ShipLinx platform as supporting parcel, LTL and truckload execution, configurable carrier-selection rules and ERP/system integrations.
GlobalTranz similarly supports enterprise integrations designed to connect transportation functionality with existing ERP environments.
So instead of asking:
“Which system should we replace?”
we asked:
“How do we make the systems they already have work together?”
That is a fundamentally different approach to freight technology.
The Bigger Opportunity: Universal Freight Automation
This project illustrates something we’re seeing across mid-market shipping operations.
Companies often already have most of the technology they need.
They may have:
ERP → WMS → TMS → EDI → Carriers → Brokers → Tracking Providers
The problem is the gaps between them.
People become the integration.
They download.
Upload.
Copy.
Paste.
Email.
Call.
Check.
Update.
Repeat.
We believe the next major opportunity in transportation automation is connecting those systems through lightweight APIs, EDI and middleware so freight can move digitally from one platform to another.
And the architecture doesn’t have to stop with truckload.
The same philosophy can ultimately be applied across:
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Full Truckload
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LTL
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Partial Truckload
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Expedited
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Drayage
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Warehousing
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Final Mile
The shipper shouldn’t have to rebuild its technology stack every time it adds a transportation provider.
The providers should plug into the shipper’s existing workflow.
Your Employees Should Manage Freight — Not Move Data Between Freight Systems
If your company is shipping multiple truckloads every day and your process still requires employees to:
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Email for rates
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Re-enter shipment information
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Manually book freight
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Copy confirmation numbers
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Check multiple tracking portals
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Update shipment status manually
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Chase carriers for routine updates
there is probably a significant amount of operational work that can be automated.
And you may not need to replace your ERP or TMS to do it.
We can start by mapping one shipment.
Show us what happens from the moment an order becomes ready to ship until the freight is delivered and reconciled.
We’ll identify every manual touch and determine which steps could potentially be connected or automated using the systems you already have.
Shipping 3+ truckloads a day?
Give us 30 minutes and one real shipment workflow.
We’ll help you map where API automation could remove hours of repetitive work from your team’s week — without ripping out the systems you already use.
Easy Logistics Management
Truckload Capacity + Freight API Automation + Nationwide 3PL Warehousing