As an overhaul of the national classification system for less-than-truckload (LTL) freight is set to launch in July, global logistics provider C.H. Robinson today unveiled an AI agent that automates the process of determining how freight should be classified.
The product comes as the National Motor Freight Traffic Association (NMFTA) is about to go live on July 19 with changes to its National Motor Freight Classification (NMFC) system, which helps shippers and carriers determine delivery rates. Parties throughout the LTL industry will be affected, including transportation providers, trucking fleets, third party logistics service providers (3PLs), and freight brokers.
Because LTL shipping involves freight sharing a truck, the NMFC system provides thousands of classes and codes that help LTL carriers know how much space and weight to plan for each individual shipment – depending on whether it’s bulky auto parts or a pallet of retail goods like socks.
That system is set to change in about four weeks, but many stakeholders are not prepared for the shift, C.H. Robinson said. “Many LTL shippers are unaware or uncertain of the classification for their freight,” Greg West, CHR’s vice president for LTL, said in a release. “So when they email us a tender, the freight class and code might be missing or incorrect. This is bound to increase with the massive overhaul of the national LTL freight classification system. So we built an AI agent that determines the correct class and code for a shipment and assists another of our AI agents in turning that tender into an accurate order in our system.”
The new AI agent helps shippers avoid the delays that can come with misclassified freight being held by the carrier for inspection, reinvoicing and potentially higher charges. It has already helped significantly increase LTL automation at C.H. Robinson, resulting in enhanced service and greater speed-to-market for LTL customers.
According to C.H. Robinson , in the AI agent’s first few months, it has been determining the freight class and code for about 2,000 orders a day. “Manually looking up or confirming the freight class and code for every emailed LTL tender can easily take a person 10 minutes or more per shipment,” Arun Rajan, CHR’s chief strategy and innovation officer, said. “For shipments the AI agent is reasoning through for the first time, it can choose a freight classification in about 10 seconds. After getting more training on that type of freight from our LTL experts, it takes only three seconds. Unlike a person, the AI agent can also handle hundreds of LTL shipments at once and determine the freight classification for all of them simultaneously. So far, that’s saving over 300 hours a day. Our customers’ freight gets on the road faster, and our people can devote more time to helping customers manage disruptions and operate their supply chains more strategically.”
