Commtrex Blog

From Spreadsheets to Smart Sheets: How AI Can Eliminate Manual Freight Analysis

Written by Martin Lew | Apr 3, 2025 9:56:46 PM

If you’re still managing freight quotes, lane comparisons, or customer activity with spreadsheets, you're not alone. Excel is a powerful tool β€” but it's also time-consuming, prone to human error, and difficult to scale. That’s where AI-enhanced workflows come in.

πŸ“‰ The Problem: Drowning in Data

Rail and logistics teams juggle dozens of spreadsheets to stay on top of:

🟑 Lane profitability
🟑 Carload trends
🟑 Rate benchmarking
🟑 Storage capacity
🟑 Customer communications

πŸ€– The Solution: AI-Augmented Freight Analysis

MartinAI helps logistics teams transition from static spreadsheets to smart sheets that learn, recommend, and predict.

βœ… Auto-Categorize Lane Data
βœ… Forecast Volume or Pricing Changes
βœ… Summarize and Prioritize Accounts
βœ… Generate Charts or Insights Instantly

πŸ“ Real-World Example

A Southeast transloader handling chemicals spent 6 hours per week reconciling volumes and rates across three spreadsheets.

With AI Agents:

  • They now receive a weekly AI-generated summary of customer trends
  • Spot billing issues and volume dips in real time
  • Spend less than 30 minutes per week analyzing freight β€” with improved accuracy

🧠 Beyond Spreadsheets: Mid-Office & Back-Office Automation

AI Agents can also automate:

πŸ“Œ Quote generation
πŸ“Œ Shipment tracking notifications
πŸ“Œ Invoicing audits
πŸ“Œ Internal report building
πŸ“Œ Data cleanup across systems

These tasks used to eat up hours every week. Now they run in the background β€” intelligently and reliably.

πŸ’¬ Interested in Learning More?

Want to explore how AI can help your team increase efficiency and minimize billing errors?

πŸ“© Reach out to Martin for a free consultation (mlew@commtrex.com).
See firsthand how AI Agents are helping rail and logistics teams work faster β€” and smarter.