What do shippers and recipients contact a logistics company about?
Mostly shipment status and the exceptions behind it, from two audiences with different rights: the shipper who pays you and the recipient waiting at the door. Ofcom's 2025 parcel research found that 68% of UK consumers had a delivery problem in the previous six months, led by delays (28%) and parcels left somewhere unsuitable (26%). Each of those becomes a contact for the carrier, the retailer or both.
| Conversation type | Can Agent resolve it? | Hand off when | Data Agent needs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where is my shipment | Yes. Reads the latest scan and the promised delivery date | No scan beyond your trace window, or the consignment is high value | Tracking number or shipper reference, scan history, service level |
| Delivery exception (address problem, nobody home, held at depot) | Yes. Turns the exception code into a plain next step | Exception means damage, refusal or a hazmat hold | Exception codes, depot, next attempt date |
| Reschedule, hold at depot or safe place | Yes, within the options the route and the shipper allow | Redirect to a new address after dispatch, or a signature-required consignment | Shipper's delivery-change rules, route calendar |
| Proof of delivery request | Yes. Sends signature, photo and timestamp to a verified requester | The requester disputes what the POD shows | POD record, requester's account or postcode match |
| Marked delivered, not received | Partly. Shares the POD, asks the recipient to check neighbors and the safe place, opens a trace | Trace window ends, or the value is above your threshold | POD photo, GPS point, driver notes |
| Loss or damage claim | Intake only. Collects photos, packaging, invoice and value, then issues a claim number | Always, for the decision. Agent never accepts liability or offers a settlement | Claim form fields, declared value, coverage terms |
| Invoice and accessorial charges | Yes. Explains each line from the invoice and rate agreement | The shipper disputes a charge or asks for a credit | Invoice lines, rate agreement, reweigh or reclass record |
| Pickup booking and changes | Yes, before the cutoff | After cutoff, or freight that needs special equipment | Pickup schedule, cutoff times, account |
| 3PL client orders, stock and receiving | Yes. Reads order status, stock on hand and inbound receipt status | Receiving counts don't match the advance ship notice, or an inventory adjustment is requested | WMS orders, inventory, ASNs |
| Cross-border shipment held in customs | Partly. Explains the status and which documents were requested | Any question about tariff classification or duties owed | Customs status, document checklist |
What does an AI procedure for a late or stuck shipment look like?
Start with the late or stuck shipment, because it is the most frequent contact and every other procedure reuses its lookups. An operations lead writes it the way they would brief a new hire, and Agent turns each line into steps that call your TMS and carrier tracking feeds.
Example procedure: shipment late or not moving
- Identify the shipment. Ask for the tracking number, or the shipper's order reference plus the delivery postcode or ZIP code.
- Verify who is asking. A recipient must match the delivery postcode. A shipper contact must write from an email domain on the account. Recipients never see rates, invoices or other consignments on the account.
- Read every scan from your TMS and any partner carrier's tracking API.
- On time: give the last scan, the location and the promised date. Don't add an estimate the system doesn't show.
- Exception code present: explain it in one sentence and offer the next step the code allows. For an incomplete address, collect the missing detail and apply it only if the shipper permits recipient address corrections; otherwise tell the recipient you have asked the shipper.
- No scan for 48 hours on parcel services or 72 hours on freight: open a trace in the TMS, give the trace reference and promise an update by 5pm the next business day.
- Hand off at once if the declared value is over $2,500, the consignment is hazardous or temperature-controlled, or the account is tagged as a key shipper.
- Escalate on words such as damaged, broken, crushed, claim, insurance, lawyer or missing pallet, and on negative sentiment after the second reply.
- Never accept fault, offer compensation or promise a delivery window the TMS doesn't show.
Sample conversation (Example)
Recipient: My parcel has said "at depot" since Monday. Where is it?
Agent: I can check that. What's the tracking number, and the postcode it's going to?
Recipient: It's the one ending 4471, going to M14 5RT.
Agent: Thanks. It reached the Manchester depot on Monday at 06:12 and was held because the flat number is missing from the address. The sender allows address updates, so if you give me the flat number I'll add it and it can go out on tomorrow's route. Or I can hold it at the depot for you to collect.
Recipient: Flat 3. Tomorrow is fine.
Agent: Done. Flat 3 is on the address and the parcel is booked for tomorrow. You'll get a text with a delivery window in the morning.
What guardrails does an AI agent need at a carrier or 3PL?
Agent can change where a consignment goes and what a shipper sees, so limit both, and keep liability, money and legal questions with people. Agent does not give legal or financial advice; it escalates those topics to your team.
What Agent must never do
- Accept liability for loss or damage, quote a settlement or say a claim will be paid. Claims staff decide.
- Advise on tariff classification, duties, customs valuation or the meaning of a contract clause.
- Release a delivery address, phone number or POD photo to someone who failed verification.
- Redirect a signature-required, high-value or restricted consignment, or change a delivery address the shipper has locked.
- Issue invoice credits or waive accessorial charges.
Claims clocks
In the US, motor carrier cargo liability falls under 49 U.S.C. 14706, which bars a carrier from allowing less than 9 months to file a claim. Under the FMCSA claims rules, a carrier must acknowledge a written claim within 30 days and pay, decline or offer a compromise within 120 days, with written status updates every 60 days after that. Agent can send the acknowledgment, attach the claim number and post the scheduled updates; a person makes the decision. International road, air and ocean moves follow other conventions, so have your counsel confirm which rules apply to each service. Aftersales does not make you compliant on its own.
Handoff triggers
- Damage, loss, theft, a broken seal or temperature excursion.
- Hazardous materials, medical or pharmaceutical consignments, and anything under a customs hold.
- Key shipper accounts, legal language and repeated negative sentiment.
Data handling
Recipient names, addresses, phone numbers and doorstep photos are personal data. Grant Agent read access to the fields each procedure needs, mask POD photos for anyone but the verified recipient or shipper, and set retention to match your existing policy. Permissions to each connector can be revoked at any time.
Which channels matter most for shipment support?
Put Agent where the tracking number already is: the tracking page and replies to delivery notifications.
- Web chat on the tracking page. The tracking number arrives with the conversation, so most status questions are answered in one reply.
- SMS. Recipients answer the "out for delivery" text to ask for a safe place or a new day.
- Email. Shippers send bills of lading, invoices, claim photos and POD requests here.
- Phone. Freight shippers and dispatchers still call. On Growth and Scale, calls land in the same Inbox with warm or cold transfers, recording consent and a separate number per brand or service line.
- Slack Connect. Large shipper accounts often want a shared channel with their account team.
What systems does a logistics AI agent connect to?
Your transport management system is the core, because it holds the shipment, its scans and its exceptions. Aftersales connects to it, and to the systems below, through the Aftersales API or webhooks. Confirm specific connectors on a call.
- TMS: shipment lookup, exception codes, traces, address corrections, redelivery booking.
- Carrier tracking APIs or EDI status feeds: scans from partner carriers on linehaul and final-mile legs.
- Driver app or POD system: signatures, photos, GPS points and delivery notes.
- WMS: 3PL client orders, stock on hand and inbound receiving.
- Claims system: create the claim record and read its status. Write access stops at intake.
- Billing or ERP: invoices, accessorial lines and rate agreements, read-only.
- Slack and Jira: a workflow posts a depot backlog to the ops channel or opens a Jira issue when a tracking feed stops updating.
- Knowledge: service guides, exception code meanings and claims instructions in one Knowledge source.
What does AI customer service cost a carrier or 3PL?
For the regional carrier below, the total is $5,283.60 a month on annual billing, about $0.66 per conversation. Conversations Agent hands off cost nothing.
Assumptions (Example):
- A regional parcel and pallet carrier that also runs a 3PL warehouse for 40 B2B clients.
- 8,000 conversations a month: about 75% recipients, 25% shippers and 3PL clients.
- Agent resolves 58% (4,640), below the 71% median Aftersales reports after 90 days, because claims decisions, billing disputes and customs holds always go to people.
- 10 support agents on Growth with annual billing. Six depot managers and two claims approvers use free Lite seats.
| Item | Calculation | Per month |
|---|---|---|
| Growth seats | 10 × $69 | $690.00 |
| Agent resolutions | 4,640 × $0.99 | $4,593.60 |
| Lite seats (depot and claims managers) | Free; Growth includes 20 | $0.00 |
| Handed-off conversations | No charge | $0.00 |
| Total | $5,283.60 |
Annual list prices as of October 2026; seats cost 20% more on monthly billing. Copilot ($29 per rep per month) is optional and not included. See pricing.
Already on Zendesk, Salesforce Service Cloud or Freshdesk? Agent can run inside it with no seats and no migration, at $0.99 per resolution with a minimum monthly commitment.
How do you roll out an AI agent at a logistics company in 30 days?
Go live on read-only tracking answers first, then delivery changes, then shippers. Leave peak season until Agent has run through a normal month.
- Days 1 to 7: connect the TMS and tracking feeds read-only, map every exception code to a sentence and a next step, and get sign-off from operations and claims on trace windows, value thresholds and the keyword list.
- Days 8 to 14: replay last month's tracking conversations with personal details removed. Go live on tracking-page chat for status questions only.
- Days 15 to 21: allow redelivery booking, depot holds and permitted address fixes; add SMS replies; switch on claim intake and POD requests. Turn on Monitors (Growth and up) to grade every conversation.
- Days 22 to 30: add shipper billing explanations and 3PL order and stock lookups, run a Monday morning backlog with a person watching handoffs, then review resolution rate, traces opened and cost per conversation in Insights.
Measure it with our resolution rate guide, and see the WISMO guide for how order-status questions build up upstream at the retailer.