The business case for AI freight coordination: calculate the work and cost

Key Takeaways

A business case for AI freight coordination covers the whole program: today's manual work, setup effort, deployment, the software cost, the ongoing operating model and how results will be measured.
Per-load timing is one input, not the whole case; the program view adds the effort your team spends before and after the switch.
Setup can be done by your own team or with the Cartage team. That choice changes internal effort, and a deployment fee applies only if the Cartage team handles setup.
Wilson, by Cartage, has no subscription or platform fee; its pricing is a percentage of the freight payments coordinated through the Wilson Wallet.
Fill every line with your own numbers and agree on the measures before the first lane goes live.

What goes into a business case for AI freight coordination?

A complete business case compares what coordination costs your company today with what the new program will cost to set up and run, using six lines: current manual work, setup effort, deployment, software cost, the ongoing operating model and measurement.

Most freight automation cases stop at the first line. They count the time coordinators spend on each load, multiply by volume and compare the result with a software price. That comparison misses work on both sides. Before the switch, someone has to gather carrier lists, write approval rules, confirm the order data flow and review the first loads. After it, people still approve rates above target, decide on exceptions and review payments outside the rules. Finance will ask about those hours.

The per-load method in the business case for freight automation, one load at a time is the right way to size the first line. The program view wraps that number in everything else the decision requires.

Six lines of a whole-program business case

Build the case in this order, because each line depends on decisions made in the one before.

Current manual coordination work. The hours your team spends today on quoting, booking, documents, pickup confirmation, tracking, updates, POD collection, invoice matching and carrier payment, plus the exceptions that interrupt them. Include work done outside logistics, such as customer service chasing ETAs or accounts payable matching invoices.
Internal effort for setup. The hours your people spend preparing the first workflow: carrier contacts, rate targets, approval limits, notification rules, sample orders and data access.
Implementation and deployment. Whether your team configures the system itself or works with the vendor, the data connection you choose, and any one-time fee that follows from that choice.
Software cost. The recurring charge, expressed in the vendor's own pricing unit and calculated on your volumes.
Ongoing operating model. The hours that stay with your team: approvals, exception decisions, payment review, rule changes and carrier list upkeep.
Measurement. The baseline you capture before starting and the measures you will compare after.

Where each number comes from in your operation

Every input should trace back to a record your company already keeps or a short measurement your team can run.

Current work. Use the per-load timing for coordination tasks, then multiply by monthly volume by mode. Add accounts payable time from invoice counts.
Setup effort. Estimate hours per role: operations documenting carriers and rules, IT confirming the order flow and access, finance setting payment limits, a coordinator reviewing the first loads.
Deployment. Record which order data flow you will start from (ERP feed, scheduled file drop, spreadsheet, email or API) and whether shipment status needs to go back to the ERP on day one.
Software cost. Take the vendor's quote and recompute it on a normal month and a peak month. If pricing depends on freight payments, use your accounts payable totals for carrier invoices on the lanes in scope.
Operating model. Read your own approval rules. Each rule that routes a decision to a person is a recurring task; estimate how often it fires on the lanes in scope.
Measurement. Pull the same figures for the in-scope lanes from the last few months before anything changes, so the comparison is like for like.

If a number can't be traced, mark it as an assumption and give it an owner who will replace it with real data after the first lanes run.

When the case holds and when to narrow it

A business case should be judged on whether its inputs are defensible, not only on whether the result is positive.

If current work is estimated from memory, time a week before presenting the case.
If setup effort has no named owners, the program will stall at the first missing carrier contact. Assign each setup task before approving the spend.
If the deployment path assumes ERP write-back on day one, check whether the first lanes actually need it. Starting from an existing export can reduce setup work, with write-back scoped later.
If the operating model shows approvals on nearly every load, the rules may be tighter than the risk requires. Review which thresholds could widen once the team sees the workflow run correctly.
If the case only works on peak volume, recalculate on a normal month. A program should hold up in both.

A narrower first scope with solid inputs is easier to approve than a broad scope built on assumptions.

Business-case worksheet with blank inputs

Fill in the last two columns for the lanes you plan to start with. Brackets mark placeholders, not figures.

Line	Input	Before the switch	First lanes running
A. Coordination work	Monthly hours on in-scope lanes (from per-load timing × volume)	[hours]	[hours]
B. Other teams	Customer service and AP hours on the same loads	[hours]	[hours]
C. Setup effort	One-time hours by role: operations, IT, finance	n/a	[hours]
D. Deployment fee	Applies only if the Cartage team handles setup; depends on complexity	n/a	[from quote if Cartage handles setup; none if your team does]
E. Software cost	Freight payments through the Wilson Wallet × Wilson's rate from your quote	n/a	[amount]
F. Tools replaced	Current freight execution software or services the program replaces	[amount]	[amount]
G. Operating model	Monthly hours on approvals, exceptions, payment review and rule updates	n/a	[hours]
H. Measures	Manual touches per load, time to book, invoice-to-payment time	[baseline]	[result]

Value the hour lines with your own loaded cost from finance. Compare A + B + F before with E + F + G after, and show C and D separately as one-time items.

How Wilson, by Cartage, fits the business case

Wilson is an AI logistics agent that replaces the TMS for freight execution and connects to the company's ERP, so most of line A moves to Wilson while lines G and H stay with your team.

Wilson quotes approved carriers, negotiates against your rate targets within approval limits, books, schedules, tracks each load from the best source available, sends updates, collects PODs, audits and reconciles carrier invoices, and pays carriers from the Wilson Wallet under your configured rules. It covers LTL, FTL, parcel, ocean, drayage and cross-border freight; cross-border coordination is not customs clearance.

For line E: Wilson has no subscription or platform fee. Once a carrier invoice is audited and reconciled, Wilson pays the carrier through the Wallet, and Wilson's pricing is a percentage of the freight payments coordinated through it. For lines C and D: customers can configure Wilson themselves or work with the Cartage team, and a deployment fee applies only when the Cartage team handles setup, depending on its complexity. Cartage helps map the first workflow during discovery. Wilson works with SAP, NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Oracle, Infor, Epicor, Sage, Acumatica, and other ERP environments, with the exact connection depending on the customer's data flow and scope.

For line G: Wilson starts with assisted execution, and the scope can expand step by step as the company gains confidence in the workflow. For line H: messages, confirmations and changes are recorded in each shipment's history, and freight coordination KPIs define the measures to track. Timing depends on scope: most teams start on a few lanes and expand from there.

Bring your current volumes and a picture of who on your team does what, and see in a demo which lines of this worksheet Wilson would take on in your operation.