The company had an immediate need for a technology pillar in order entry. As a less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier, PTG’s local pickup-and-delivery operations feed 35 line haul schedules south bound and 35 line haul schedules northbound every night.
The assets go no further than 500 miles out and return, loaded with freight into and out of the Toronto area. All the line-hauls have daily cutoff times for orders that have to get through a series of complex operational steps. Each order has unique touch points for data and documents.
“We deal with a high level of variation of documents,” Brajkovich says. “Nothing is consistent.”
Besides dealing with a large volume and variety of shipping documents, PTG’s order entry and customs departments exchange information with customers to clear orders for border crossings.
Before the line-hauls depart, PTG has to send an electronic load manifest or “customs invoice” to border-crossing agencies at least one hour before drivers arrive at checkpoints to prevent transit delays.
As CTO, Brajkovich evaluated several RPA platforms to alleviate workload in the order entry, customs and operations departments. RPA uses algorithms or “bots” that replicate human workflow and integrate with various applications and back-end systems to automate data and document processing.
PTG selected an RPA platform from WorkFusion and built its own proprietary application layers for its unique business needs as a cross-border LTL carrier.
