Attract & capture - enquiries land in chaos
No quote path on the site, shared inbox, after-hours waits until morning
More volume. Same headcount.
Freight Operations is a monthly AI automation program for freight forwarders and 3PLs: we build and maintain what still happens by hand around your TMS.
The problem
Volume goes up. Inboxes explode.
Six stages from first enquiry to paid invoice. If these still run on email and memory, the bottleneck isn't your TMS - it's everything around it.
- Only 17% of companies in the US, Canada, and Western Europe are fully automated in transportation management; over a third are mostly manual. (Descartes TMS Benchmark Survey, 2025)
- Only 23% of forwarders have digitized over 75% of processes; under 40% use a forwarding management system. (Magaya, State of Digitization in Freight Forwarding, 2025)
Run the short diagnostic for a rough hours estimate - not a full audit. On the free audit call we replace it with your real numbers and name the first build.
Quote & win - speed loses to hand-built numbers
Quotes typed from the enquiry, margin rules in someone’s head, follow-up remembered not sequenced
Deliver - documents stall cash and trucks
POD, permits, customs typed and chased by hand; same facts re-entered across systems
Status - “where is my shipment?” never stops
Staff ping carriers, rewrite the same update, clients have no place to look
Exceptions - fires wake the whole floor
Delays and missing docs surface late; whoever notices first owns the fire
Bill & admin - finance trails the floor
Invoice matching, reconciliation, reminders - always behind the operation
The solution
Custom AI freight process automations
We don’t drop a project and disappear. We stay in the operation.
Map what still burns hours
A free audit of how quotes, documents, status, and exceptions really move today - in your words, not a template.
Ship the highest-ROI fix next
A clear next fix: automation, voice, funnel, or a small internal tool, built one at a time.
Keep what you have live
APIs change. Vendors change schemas. We monitor and fix what’s already running while the next build is underway.
Review what moved
Each month: what shipped, what it changed, and what’s next on a backlog you can see.
What changes
Less manual work around the TMS
Same idea every time: remove the handoff your team still does because no product covers your process.
Documents that move themselves
- Pull data from POD, permits, and customs paperwork
- Chase missing files until they arrive
- Fill the templates you already use - Word and PDF you can edit
Status without the chase
- Sync status across the tools you already run
- Proactive customer updates before they ask
- Drafted answers ready for a human to send
Exceptions with an owner
- Route delays and holds to the right person with context
- Stop the whole floor from jumping every ping
- Keep a queue you can actually work
Voice and front door when it pays
- Driver check-ins for location and ETA
- Intake and booking that don’t land as another inbox pile
- Estimators that capture demand without publishing bindable rates
Case studies
Proof we deliver - not a promise we will
Real systems, live today, including load tracking at Zonik AI, a logistics product we co-founded.
Around your TMS
Why this works
Your TMS handles the shipments. We handle everything that still happens by hand around it.
No product fully covers your margin rules, permit paperwork, or the messy handoffs between tools that never talk. That’s the work we take on - Attract → Bill as an operating funnel, not a software wishlist.
Go-live guarantee
If the first build misses the agreed date because of us, we keep working at no extra cost until it’s live.
We measure before we build
Every build starts with an agreed operational metric. We don’t invent percentage savings.
Why custom
Built for your operation, not every operation
Worldwide freight software is built for the average forwarder. Your margin depends on the paperwork, lanes and rules that are yours.
Your paperwork, your market
Local customs, permits and carrier documents that a worldwide product won’t build for one market.
Your margin rules
Quotes and checks follow the rules your people set, not a generic rate engine.
Around the TMS you keep
Your TMS stays the record. We connect what still happens by hand around it.
Yours to keep
You own the workflows, accounts and documentation. No per-seat licence for what we build; outside tools stay on your own accounts.
Client stories
What clients say after we connect the work
I don't want people sitting on GPS all night.It watches the loads, calls the driverif something's wrong, and we only get what it can't finish.
Beta, with its first users
Zonik AI case studyNenad Stevanovic
Co-founder, Zonik AI - a product we co-founded
Zonik AI
Radu Antohe
Founder, PublicLink
“Overall, the team has performed better than any other project I've worked on in the IT industry.”
150+ verified professionals in the first 60 days
Stefanie Herbert
Co-founder, Relative Innovations
“Working with Marko has been an incredible experience from start to finish. He went above and beyond to bring our vision for our CRM platform to life not only executing what we asked for, but also offering valuable suggestions that improved the overall design and functionality.”
A custom CRM platform, built end to end
Tania Espinoza
Founder & CEO, Global 8 Connect
“Working with Marko at Eterna on the development of my B2B platform has been an exceptional experience. Communication was outstanding from day one; they were always highly attentive to details and proactive. Despite a significant time zone difference, they were incredibly responsive, consistently answering questions and resolving doubts in less than 24 hours.”
An MVP launched across time zones
Miloš Djordjevic
Founder & CEO, Stretch Well - a product we co-founded
“This platform lets us help the thousands of followers who couldn't access our stretching services before - with our own app. The whole process was cool, and the team solved all the technical challenges we worried about, especially around video security.”
A stretching app with secure video
How we work
Audit to growth. One partner throughout.
Audit
A free audit call. We map how the work really moves today, name the highest-ROI first build, and agree how we will measure it.
Blueprint
A written plan for the first build: scope, where a person approves, the agreed operational metric, and the go-live date.
Development
We build it around your tools, not instead of them, with a person approving at the points the Blueprint names.
Go live
It goes live and stays monitored. If the first build misses the agreed date because of us, we keep working at no extra cost until it is live.
Growth
We keep what is live healthy, review each month what moved, and ship the next highest-ROI fix from a backlog you can see.
Working together
What's in. What's out.
Where we usually start
- 1.Document extraction and validation
- 2.Missing-document chase
- 3.Voice driver check-ins
- 4.Status sync into drafted customer updates
- 5.Front-door intake when acquisition is the real bottleneck
You get
- Monitoring and fixes on everything already live
- A monthly review with clear next steps
- A backlog you can see - not a black box
You don’t get
- A promise to replace your TMS
- Vague “AI agents” with no human on exceptions
- Licence fees for third-party tools (those stay on your accounts)
Investment
One monthly partner.
3 automations a year
€800/month
- Monitoring and fixes on everything already live
- A monthly review with clear next steps
- A backlog you can see - not a black box
6 automations a year
€1,500/month
- Monitoring and fixes on everything already live
- A monthly review with clear next steps
- A backlog you can see - not a black box
12 automations a year
€2,500/month
- Monitoring and fixes on everything already live
- A monthly review with clear next steps
- A backlog you can see - not a black box
Build and maintenance included, over 12 months. If it isn't working for you, give written notice before month 3 ends - no reason needed. You keep everything we built, and at least one automation will be live by then.
Not ready for a program? One-off project from €500. Exact scope after the free audit.
Free resources
Self-check and read around your TMS
FAQ
Straight answers
Ask AI about us
Want to know more?
Show us the bottleneck. We’ll map the fix.
Book a free ops audit. We learn how your operation actually works, name the highest-ROI first build, and agree how we’ll measure it - before you commit to anything.
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