Transport & logistics
Automation forroad hauliers and logistics companies
Less re-keying, fewer phone calls and less paperwork to chase: more time to run the fleet.
- Customer messages & requests
- Documents & admin
- Scheduling & operations
In short
Iselia Projects automates the repetitive work of road hauliers and logistics companies: entering transport orders received by email or PDF, answering tracking requests, collecting CMRs and proof of delivery, invoicing with fuel surcharges, payment chasers and matching subcontracted-haulage invoices. Connected to your TMS and telematics, these automations give an SME planning and admin team more than fifteen hours back each week.
- Who it’s for
- Road hauliers, freight forwarders and brokers, logistics and warehousing providers, from 5 to 200 vehicles
- What we automate
- Customer messages & requests Documents & admin Scheduling & operations
- 7tasks quantified
- 10industry tools supported
- 5steps in the end-to-end example
Day to day
Where your team loses time.
Useful but repetitive tasks that pile up around the real work. They are usually the first ones that can be automated.
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Transport orders typed in twice
Shippers send orders by email, PDF, spreadsheet or portal: planners copy addresses, time slots, weights and references into the TMS by hand, with all the errors that brings.
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“Where’s my truck?”
Customers call and email for ETAs and delivery confirmations; the planner stops what they are doing to check tracking and reply.
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CMRs that come back late
Signed consignment notes lost in the cab, unreadable photos, reservations nobody flagged: without proof of delivery, the invoice can’t go out or the dispute is lost.
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Invoicing that takes days
Checking every job, adding waiting time, extras and fuel surcharge, grouping by customer: month-end billing ties up the team and delays cash in.
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Late payers squeezing cash flow
Payment terms are agreed, but chasing comes after operations, while fuel has to be paid straight away.
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Subcontractor invoices to reconcile
Subcontracted hauliers, fuel cards, tolls, workshops: supplier invoices must be matched against completed jobs, line by line.
Task by task
Where your hours are hiding.
Each row applies the same formula: weekly volume × manual time × automatable share. Volumes match the example “20 vehicles, 4 office staff”.
| Task | Volume / wk | Time per unit | Automatable | Saved / wk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Documents & admin Enter transport orders into the TMS Orders received by email, PDF or spreadsheet are read and the job is created in the TMS (addresses, slots, goods, references); planners approve incomplete cases. | 120 orders / week | 4 min | 60 % | 4.8 h |
| Customer messages & requests Answer customer tracking requests Automatic replies with the estimated arrival time and actual status from the TMS and telematics, proof of delivery sent on request; delays and incidents are escalated. | 60 requests / week | 4 min | 70 % | 2.8 h |
| Documents & admin Collect and file CMRs and proof of delivery Photos and e-CMRs collected from drivers, checked for legibility and reservations, attached to the job and sent to the customer. | 120 deliveries / week | 2 min | 60 % | 2.4 h |
| Documents & admin Prepare invoicing and fuel surcharges Pre-invoicing from completed jobs, extras and fuel surcharge added using your contractual indices, discrepancies checked before sending. | 30 invoices / week | 8 min | 50 % | 2.0 h |
| Documents & admin Chase unpaid invoices Due dates tracked, graduated reminders with proof of delivery attached, management alerted when payment terms are exceeded. | 15 reminders / week | 6 min | 70 % | 1.1 h |
| Scheduling & operations Send runs and instructions to drivers Runs, addresses, dock slots and loading instructions sent to drivers' phones; automatic updates when something changes, with read confirmation. | 40 dispatches / week | 5 min | 50 % | 1.7 h |
| Documents & admin Reconcile subcontractor and supplier invoices Invoices from subcontracted hauliers, fuel and tolls read and matched against jobs and agreed rates, discrepancies flagged. | 40 invoices / week | 4 min | 60 % | 1.6 h |
| Estimated total · ≈ 767 h a year | 16.3 h | |||
By type of automation
The estimated hours are spread across these automations, each explained on its own page.
- 2.8 h / week Customer messages & requests Answer customer tracking requests Explore
- 11.9 h / week Documents & admin Enter transport orders into the TMS Collect and file CMRs and proof of delivery Prepare invoicing and fuel surcharges Chase unpaid invoices Reconcile subcontractor and supplier invoices Explore
- 1.7 h / week Scheduling & operations Send runs and instructions to drivers Explore
End-to-end example
Example: from transport order to invoice
A typical scenario to show how it fits together: each step triggers on its own, your team approves what needs approving and can take over at any time.
Human in the loop: approvals, escalations and a log of every action.
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Order received
The shipper emails an order: it is read, the job is created in the TMS and the planner is only alerted if something is missing.
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Driver briefed
The planned job goes to the driver’s phone with address, slot and instructions; the customer gets a collection confirmation.
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Tracking and delivery
The customer is told the arrival time and any delay; on delivery, the photo of the signed CMR is checked and attached to the job.
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Invoicing
The delivered job feeds pre-invoicing with extras and fuel surcharge; the team approves discrepancies, then the invoice goes out with proof of delivery attached.
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Payment tracked
Due dates are monitored; chasers go out on their own and management is alerted before terms are breached.
Calculator
What about your business?
The example’s tasks and volumes are pre-filled. Replace them with your own and the result updates instantly.
Average fully loaded cost of one hour of work for the team involved (€35/h by default).
Your estimate
Transport & logistics
Hours back per week
16.3 h / week
- Hours back per year
- 767 h / year
- Equivalent staff cost per year
- €26,841 / year
- tasks included
- 7 / 7
Split by type of automation
- Documents & admin 11.9 h
- Scheduling & operations 1.7 h
- Custom business tools 0.0 h
Indicative estimate, based on the assumptions above. No guaranteed results.
Example: a regional haulier with 20 vehicles
Illustrative scenario, not a real client: a regional haulier running 20 rigid and articulated trucks, with 4 people in the office (planning and admin). With the cautious assumptions above — 120 transport orders, 60 tracking requests, 120 deliveries to document, 30 invoices, 15 chasers, 40 driver dispatches and 40 supplier invoices per week — the indicative estimate is about 16.3 hours saved per week, or close to 770 hours a year (47 working weeks). Real figures depend on your customers, your TMS and how much work you subcontract.
- Example size
- 20 vehicles, 4 office staff
- per week
- 16.3 h
- per year (47 weeks)
- 767 h
- of staff time at €35/h
- €26,841
Integrations
Plugged into your tools.
We connect automations to the software you already use, through APIs, webhooks or exports. No forced migration.
Common tools in this industry that we can connect to: these are not client references. Don’t see yours? We check compatibility during the assessment.
- Dashdoc
- Shippeo
- Transporeon
- Timocom
- Teleroute
- Webfleet
- Samsara
- Microsoft 365
- Excel
Why automate haulage operations and admin
In road haulage, margin comes down to details: a well-loaded truck, waiting time actually billed, an invoice sent on time. Yet planners and admin staff spend much of their day copying orders, answering the same tracking questions and chasing consignment notes. That repetitive work relies on information that already exists in the shipper’s email, the TMS or the telematics: automation moves it around without re-keying.
The regulatory framework
- Transport documents: every consignment must travel with a consignment note (a CMR for international carriage), on paper or electronic. The e-CMR protocol and the EU eFTI Regulation (2020/1056) are paving the way for authorities to accept freight information electronically.
- Payment terms: several countries cap them for road haulage. In France, agreed terms may not exceed 30 days from the invoice date.
- Fuel surcharges: in France, the Transport Code requires the transport price to be revised to reflect changes in fuel costs; our automations apply the formula and indices set out in your contracts, wherever you operate.
- Driving and rest times: governed in the EU by Regulation 561/2006 and the tachograph. Automation can help spot an unrealistic plan, but never overrides the planner.
- Mobility Package: for international operations in the EU, posting declarations are filed on the dedicated European portal; their preparation can be assisted, but a person validates them.
What automates well… and what stays with the planners
Automates well: reading and entering orders, tracking replies, collecting and checking proof of delivery, pre-invoicing, payment chasers, sending instructions to drivers and reconciling supplier invoices.
Stays with the team: fine-tuning the transport plan, negotiating with shippers and subcontractors, handling incidents and disputes, decisions on safety and drivers’ hours. The automation prepares, flags and documents.
Our principles
- Nothing is guessed: an ambiguous order or an unreadable CMR is flagged, not filled in at random.
- Drivers keep their tools and don’t get yet another app.
- Everything is logged: every job created, every customer message, every chaser.
- You own the automations and the data, connected to your current TMS.
Where to start
Usually with transport-order entry or proof-of-delivery collection: they are the highest-volume tasks and they speed up invoicing directly. The calculator below uses the assumptions on this page; adjust them to your fleet for your own indicative estimate, then book a free assessment so we can check it together.
FAQ
Your questions, answered.
What professionals in this industry ask us most often before getting started.
How much does it cost to automate a haulage company?
Does it connect to our TMS and telematics?
Our transport orders arrive in all sorts of formats. Will it still work?
What about e-CMRs?
Will our drivers need a new app?
Is our customer and pricing data protected?
Free assessment · 30 minutes
Your 16.3 estimated hours, checked in 30 minutes.
We review your tasks, your real volumes and your tools, then quantify what you can actually get back. You leave with a clear roadmap, whether or not you work with us.
Reply within one business day · No commitment