What's Human-in-the-Loop?
Human in the loop means having software handle routine logistics work while keeping your operations team involved in decisions that need business context and judgment. Your team only steps in at critical decision points to ensure things run smoothly.
Example of a shipment consolidation (consol) creation workflow in typical forwarding operations:
- Receive HBOL and MBOL in an email from customer
- Send this data to the operations team
- Operations team member find the associated shipment in your system
- Create a new empty consol
- Associate the shipment to the new consol
- Manually transfer the data from the HBOL, MBOL into the shipment consol to complete it
With human in the loop automation, logistics software handles:
- Automatic email parsing to extract HBOL and MBOL data
- Matching shipping documents to existing shipments in your system
- Creation of consol with data from the incoming email and attachments
- Automatically sending notifications to team members before consol creation for final approval
Rule by Exception
In traditional human in the loop logistics processes, someone from your team checks the results of every workflow. With rule by exception, the software only notifies team members when it needs help, letting your team focus on cases that actually need their expertise.
Here's how the same shipment consol creation workflow looks using rule by exception:
- Software processes incoming emails and extracts shipping and customs documents
- AI matches documents to existing shipments in the freight management system
- System creates consols and populates customs data automatically for straightforward cases
- When something looks off (like mismatched dims/weights or unusual destinations), the system alerts your team
- Your team only needs to review cases that require their expertise
How this can impact your bottom line
There are several clear benefits for logistics companies. Here are the three that matter most:
- Take on new business without growing headcount: When routine logistics tasks are automated, your current team can handle more shipping volume while maintaining quality.
- Give your team time for what matters: When they're not tied up with repetitive tasks, your team can focus on building relationships and solving more complex challenges.
- Catch issues early: Automated logistics systems help maintain consistent business rules and spot potential customs issues early, reducing mistakes while keeping shipments compliant and tracked from receipt to release.
The challenge for forwarders
Getting your automation setup right takes work.
You need to know which processes can run automatically and which need human oversight. This means taking a close look at your business, understanding your comfort level with automation, and knowing where your team's judgment adds the most value.
Your team also has to be bought in to making this happen. To see real change everyone in the business has to have the desire to level up your operations and a mindset that is open to adopting new ways of doing things. This is not always easy if you’ve been in the business for decades.
Bottom Line
Automation is here to stay in freight forwarding and customs brokerage, but so are the people who make it all work. Success comes from finding practical ways for your team and software to complement each other. It's about using automation to make your team's job easier, not replace them, and keeping your team focused on work that needs their expertise.
