Who owns the work between a delay alert and a recovery plan?

Key Takeaways

A delay alert says something is wrong. A recovery plan says what happens next. The work in between often has no owner.
5 tasks sit in that gap: contact the carrier, get the new ETA and reason, notify the team, notify the customer and decide the recovery.
Most of those tasks are routine; only the decision needs judgment.
Wilson, by Cartage, is an AI logistics agent that contacts the carrier, gets the new ETA and reason, notifies the team and customers as configured and initiates rebooking from approved carriers when needed.
The team decides what exceeds the rules.

Why does the work after a delay alert go unowned?

A distributor's load misses a checkpoint. An alert goes to a shared inbox. Three people see it. Each assumes someone else is calling the carrier. Two hours later, nobody has, and the customer calls first.

The work after a delay alert goes unowned because alerts go to many people, and none of them is assigned to act.

Delays are common: ATRI found truck drivers were detained at 39.3% of stops in 2023.

What work sits between a delay alert and a recovery plan?

5 tasks sit between the alert and the plan.

#	Task	Routine or judgment?
1	Contact the carrier	Routine
2	Get the new ETA and reason	Routine
3	Notify the team	Routine
4	Notify the customer	Routine, if configured
5	Decide the recovery	Judgment, when it exceeds the rules

See a delay alert is not a resolution plan.

Who should own each task?

Routine tasks should have a default owner; decisions should go to the person with the authority.

Carrier contact and ETA: whoever runs the shipment.
Team and customer updates: whoever runs the shipment, under notification rules.
Rebooking within the rules: whoever runs the shipment.
Rebooking above the limit, expediting or changing delivery: the logistics lead or account owner.

See who approves the next move when a shipment goes wrong?

How does Wilson, by Cartage, own the work after a delay alert?

Wilson does the routine tasks after a delay and escalates the decisions that exceed the rules. Traditional logistics software gives teams information. Wilson executes the work required to move shipments forward.

Step	Trigger	What Wilson does	When a person steps in
1. Contact	A load is running late	Contacts the carrier	Not required
2. ETA	Carrier responds	Gets the new ETA and reason	Not required
3. Notify team	ETA confirmed	Tells the team in Slack, Teams or email	Not required
4. Notify customer	ETA confirmed	Updates the customer, if configured	Not required
5. Recover	The carrier can't make it	Initiates rebooking from the approved carrier list	If the rebooking needs approval
6. Escalate	Decision exceeds the rules	Escalates with options and the full history	Deciding

See freight exception management.

How do teams know the gap is closed?

Teams know the gap is closed when every delay has a recorded action, not just an alert.

Every delay has an ETA and reason on the shipment.
Every update is sent to the right people.
Every decision is recorded, with who made it.

Every message, confirmation and change is recorded in a change history.

FAQs

Who should act on a shipment delay alert? Whoever runs the shipment should contact the carrier and update people; decisions above the rules go to the person with the authority.
What should happen after a delay alert? Contact the carrier, get the new ETA and reason, notify the team and customer, and decide the recovery.
Can AI handle shipment delays? Yes. Wilson, by Cartage, contacts the carrier, gets the new ETA and reason, notifies people as configured and initiates rebooking from approved carriers when needed.
What does Wilson do when a carrier cancels or misses a pickup? In this order: contacts the carrier, notifies the team, notifies the customer if configured and initiates rebooking from the approved carrier list.
Does Wilson rebook automatically? Rebooking runs automatically or waits for approval, depending on the company's rules.
How is Wilson priced? There's no subscription fee. Pricing is a percentage of the carrier payments that run through Wilson.

Conclusion

An alert without an owner is just noise. The work between the alert and the recovery plan (calling the carrier, getting the ETA, updating people and deciding) needs someone to do it every time. Wilson, by Cartage, does the routine part on every delay and escalates the decisions that need a person. The practical first step is to start Wilson on a few lanes and compare time from delay alert to recovery with how those lanes run today.

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