The deliverable
An Automation Map, worked in full.
This is the document you get back when you describe your operation. The example below is written for Northlane, a freight brokerage we invented so we could show you every call, including the uncomfortable ones. Yours will be about your operation, and it will be shorter, sharper and yours.
The operation
Northlane brokers full and partial truckloads on repeat lanes. The week runs on quoting, dispatch, invoicing, proof-of-delivery chasing and carrier paperwork. The owner wrote to us in two sentences: most of the admin is quoting, dispatch and invoicing; where would automation actually pay off, and what would you not touch yet. This map is the reply.
Northlane is fictional. It also runs the freight demo on the Atrium page, so you can watch some of these calls behaving as live screens.
Runs alone
Four workflows we would put on rails now.
| The workflow | The call, and the reason |
|---|---|
| Quoting on known lanes | Rates come from the tariff sheet, so a quote can go out in minutes instead of hours, and every quote carries the tariff line that priced it. If the lane is not in the tariff, it routes to a person instead of guessing. |
| Invoice matching | Three-way match against the rate confirmation and the proof of delivery. Matches get paid on schedule; mismatches are never auto-paid, they are queued with the discrepancy highlighted. |
| Where-is-my-truck replies | Reads dispatch and answers at any hour, including 2am. It can only read, so the worst it can be is out of date, never wrong about money. |
| Proof-of-delivery chasing | Follow-ups that stop the moment the document lands. The sequence knows what the operation has already received, which is the whole trick. |
Needs a person
Three workflows where the system prepares and a human decides.
| The workflow | The call, and the reason |
|---|---|
| Claims and refunds over $500 | The system assembles the evidence: the rate con, the photos, the timeline. A person authorises the money, because that authority is the company's to give, not the software's to take. |
| New-customer credit terms | A recommendation arrives prepared, with the checks run. The owner signs it, because a bad credit call compounds for a year. |
| Breakdown rerouting | Options computed with hours-of-service and windows already checked. The dispatcher picks, because the driver on the phone is a relationship, not a variable. |
Not yet
Three things we would refuse to automate today, and what would change our mind.
| The workflow | Why not, and what would change it |
|---|---|
| Changing the tariff itself | Quoting from the tariff is safe because the tariff is the checked source. Letting software move the source moves money before any check exists. It stays human until pricing has its own evidence loop. |
| Anything near driver pay | Payroll errors compound monthly and the rules differ by state and contract. This earns automation last, after the evidence base exists, not first because it is annoying. |
| Auto-onboarding new carriers | Insurance verification against the source is the load-bearing check, and until that integration is proven, a person confirms the certificate. The day it is proven, this row moves up a column. |
What this is worth
The arithmetic is Northlane's to run, and yours to repeat: if quoting, matching and chasing eat two hours a day across the office, that is about 500 hours a year at the company's loaded cost, before counting the quote that went out in minutes instead of tomorrow. The map does not promise a number. It shows you where your own number lives.
The map is free. The hours are yours.
Get yours.
Describe your operation in a sentence. A person reads it and writes your map: what runs alone, what needs a person, what we would not touch yet, with the reason beside every call.