This guide takes you through the process of creating an order in the ERP system and booking a carrier. It shows what each step looks like when carried out manually, the changes that happen when the process is automated, and the points at which human intervention is still required. It is intended for logistics and supply chain managers at manufacturing companies that ship a variety of parcels, pallets and freight.


What is shipping automation software?

Shipping automation software connects your ERP to your carriers, so orders turn into carrier bookings without manual data entry. It compares rates across your own carrier contracts, selects a carrier by rules or with one click, sends the booking, generates labels and transport documents, and returns tracking and cost data to the ERP.


From ERP order to carrier booking

Every outbound order travels this path, whether you automate it or not. What changes is how many of these steps still need human interaction.

1. The order is released in the ERP

Manual today: Someone releases the order, and someone in logistics receives an email or checks a list to see what needs to be shipped.

Automated: Releasing the order (or creating the delivery note) acts as the trigger. As nothing gets retyped later, the data entered here must be correct: delivery address, contact details, number and type of packages, weights and dimensions, Incoterms and the requested delivery date.

Who still decides: The people who own the master data. If the ERP stores estimated package weights, automation will use these weights. Once the data has been fixed, every subsequent step becomes easier.

2. The shipment reaches the shipping platform

Manual today: The logistics coordinator opens the order in one window and the carrier portal in another, and copies the data field by field.

Automated: The ERP system sends the shipment to the shipping platform with a single click or automatically upon release. With carriers and partners integrated with Cargoson, you can either send a shipment with a chosen carrier or send it without one and select the carrier later.

Who still decides: You decide which orders flow automatically. Many teams start with one site or one order type and add the rest once the data is ready.

3. The platform compares rates against your own contracts

Manual today: Your carriers may be listed in a PDF tariff, an Excel sheet or a portal quote, and the fuel surcharge table may date back to whenever someone last updated it. It can take longer to compare several options for a single pallet than to book it.

Automated: The platform calculates the price for every carrier and service at once, from your negotiated rate cards, including loading meters, minimum charges and current fuel surcharges. With Cargoson, you can send rate cards in any format (Excel, PDF or email) and the team will digitize them within one to two days.

Who still decides: Nobody for routine lanes. The comparison is arithmetic. Your job is to keep contracts up to date and send new rate cards after a tender.

4. Rules pick the carrier, or a person does

Manual today: The coordinator selects the carrier they typically use for that route. This may be the cheapest option, or it may simply be a habit.

Automated: You set rules by direction, postal code, service, price and transit time. Cargoson's automated carrier selection works in two modes. In the first, an "Auto-Select Carrier" button suggests the carrier your rules point to, and a person confirms. In the second, pressing "Book" in the integrated ERP books the carrier immediately.

Who still decides: A person, whenever the order does not fit a rule.

5. The booking goes to the carrier

Manual today: The same data gets entered into the carrier's portal again, or goes by email to a dispatcher who retypes it into their own system.

Automated: The platform sends bookings through the carrier's API or EDI, if available, or as a structured email if not. It also generates the documents required for the shipment to travel, such as labels, the CMR waybill and dangerous goods documents for ADR shipments.

Who still decides: You choose your carriers. If one of them is not yet connected, Cargoson will build the integration free of charge.

6. Labels, tracking and costs come back to the ERP

Manual today: Someone prints the label at the dock, then enters the tracking number into the order. Meanwhile, customer service still has to call logistics to ask where a delivery is, and the finance team waits for the carrier invoice to determine the shipment's cost.

Automated: The label prints where the goods are packed. The platform adds the tracking link and status updates to the order, so customer service responds from the ERP. Finance can allocate the calculated freight cost per order, product, customer or cost center. This gives the finance team an idea of the cost before the invoice arrives.

Who still decides: Finance, whenever an invoice does not match the calculated cost. This check now involves a single comparison rather than a search through emails.


What changes for the logistics team: before and after

The biggest change is how the team spends its time. Routine bookings no longer take minutes each, and the hours are now spent dealing with exceptions, carriers and customers.

Task

Before

After

Entering shipment data

Copied from the ERP into each carrier portal

Sent from the ERP once

Checking rates

PDF and Excel tariffs, one carrier at a time

All carriers priced at once, surcharges included

Booking

Portal logins and emails to dispatchers

One click, or automatic by rule

Documents

Labels and CMRs printed from different systems

Produced with the booking

"Where is my delivery?"

Customer service asks logistics, logistics asks the carrier

Tracking link and status on the ERP order

Checking freight invoices

Invoice compared with a tariff by hand

Invoice compared with the cost calculated at booking


What that looks like in practice, from manufacturers using Cargoson:

  • At electric motor maker Konesko, processing one shipment now takes one to two minutes. (Konesko story)
  • At packaging maker Nefab, the logistics team spends 20-30% less time per day ordering transport. (Nefab story)
  • At electronics manufacturer HansaMatrix, daily booking work dropped from about two hours to 30 minutes. (HansaMatrix story)

The results hold up under independent review. A 2025 master's thesis at TalTech University studied Cargoson at Stoneridge Electronics and recorded 27% lower transport costs, with orders delivered on the first promised date rising from 87% to 94%. (TalTech thesis)

There is a quieter benefit too. When booking knowledge is held by one person and stored in several browsers, every holiday and sick day poses a risk. When that knowledge is stored in a shared system, a colleague can step in on day one.


How Konesko cut booking to one or two minutes per shipment

Konesko makes electric motors, electrical components and crane parts in Estonia, and exports all of its production to the EU, the US and China. Volumes are high and the logistics team is small.

Before Cargoson, transport relied on email. The purchasing team emailed the logistics team to ask where the goods were. Logistics then emailed the carriers and emailed back to purchasing. All this back-and-forth wasted a lot of everyone's time.

After the switch, booking and status moved into one system that everyone can see. A new logistician, Andreas Valk, joined with no previous logistics experience and was handling shipments on his own within a day. Processing a shipment now takes him one to two minutes, and carriers now return urgent export quotes within minutes.

The team is the same size as before. As Konesko's purchasing manager Maris Gorboljova puts it: "Before, we had one logistician who was constantly struggling, being short on time. Today, we still have one logistician, but there's no time pressure anymore."

Read the full Konesko story


What to check before you automate

Five questions decide whether shipping automation will work in your setup. Ask every vendor the same ones before you sign.

1. Does the ERP connector cover your version, and who maintains it?

Coverage differs between ERP versions, and someone has to keep the connection working through ERP upgrades. If an ERP migration is coming, check both the version you run today and the one you are moving to.

2. Are your freight carriers connected, not just parcel carriers?

A long list of carriers means little if your pallet and part-load carriers are missing from it. Check every carrier you use, and check which services work for each one: rates, booking, documents, tracking.

3. Does it use your rates, or sell you its own?

Some platforms stay cheap or free because they earn a margin on the freight you book through them. That can suit a small parcel shipper. A manufacturer with negotiated contracts should keep them.

4. What does a new carrier cost, and how long does it take?

You will add carriers: after a tender, for a new market, when a regular one lets you down. Some vendors charge a development project for each new connection.

5. What comes back to the ERP?

Tracking numbers are the minimum. Status updates, documents and freight costs are what save customer service and finance their time. 

Our TMS RFP template turns these questions into a structured comparison if you are talking to several vendors.


What shipping automation is not

When you compare vendors, be aware of tools that appear similar but serve different functions.

  • An ERP shipping module. Most ERPs print a delivery note and store a tracking number. Few can calculate a pallet rate from six carrier tariffs or book a truck through a carrier's API. Our ERP vs TMS guide covers where that line sits.
  • A parcel label printer. Many tools sell themselves as shipping automation but stop at parcels. A manufacturer also ships pallets, part loads and full trucks, sometimes with dangerous goods. 
  • A freight broker. The software books your carriers at your rates. If a tool only works with the rates it sells you, it is a marketplace with a booking screen, not a shipping automation.


Start with your typical orders

Once you have connected the ERP, the entire process runs automatically. When an order comes in, the system compares it to every carrier contract you have and your rules select the carrier for that route. The label prints at the dock and the tracking link is sent to the customer. 

You do not need to automate everything at once. Look at your typical orders, time how long each one takes, and count how many systems each one touches. Then decide which could have been booked automatically.

Book a free 30-minute consultation with us. We will show you what it looks like in Cargoson, with your carriers and your rates.

Book a free 30-minute consultation

Still comparing tools? See our guide to the top 17 TMS providers.