For container carriers and forwarders
Automate container transport documents
Bills of Lading, CMRs, customs documents, and transport orders pass through dozens of parties and formats. Chainfill turns that into one structured stream.
- Source-agnostic
- Every format
- B/L, CMR, customs, or scan of a scan
- Into your TMS
- One schema
- No per-partner or per-terminal template
In numbers
The container chain still runs largely on paper and PDF
- 638,852
- eCMRs were issued in the Netherlands in 2022.
- 1%
- Just over 1% of all consignment notes were digital. The rest arrives as paper, PDF attachments or legacy EDI.
One wrong reference or one delayed update and the container sits. Demurrage and detention costs are the direct price of manual retyping between carrier, forwarder, terminal, and TMS.
Open Trip Model and eCMR are only half-real in container transport. In 2022 just 638,852 eCMRs were issued in the Netherlands, just over 1% of all freight notes. For forwarders and container carriers that means B/Ls, CMRs and customs schedules still arrive as paper, PDF attachments or legacy EDI.
The problem
Where things go wrong in the container chain
- 01
Documents arrive in dozens of formats: PDF, email, EDIFACT, scan of a scan.
- 02
Terminal appointments, customs schedules, and TMS fields all need to match while humans key them in by hand.
- 03
One wrong reference and the container sits, with demurrage as the bill.
In the product
From transport instruction to checked container data
Bills of Lading, CMRs, customs schedules, and booking confirmations converge into a single AI pipeline that validates references and pushes structured records to your TMS. That single pipeline is what container freight document automation looks like once paper, PDF, and EDI all converge in one place.
How it works
From inbound document to live container record
Capture every source
Inbound channels (carrier portals, mailboxes, EDI feeds, terminal exports) all land in one inbox without per-source plumbing. PDF, EDIFACT, XML, scans, and even a photo from a phone all normalise to one schema.
Read regardless of layout
AI extracts container, booking, and customs fields whether the document is a fresh eCMR or a scan-of-a-scan.
Validate up front
References, weights, and terminal appointments are cross-checked against your TMS and terminal feeds before the record goes live.
Flag anomalies fast
Inconsistencies reach the right operator the moment they appear, not at the terminal gate.
Stories from our customers
Logistics companies already growing without extra people.
Customer story
- of orders automatic
- 90%
“Since going live in October, Hartog Transport now processes 90% of its order flow automatically with Chainfill. A process that previously required many manual steps has become a much more efficient and scalable way of working.”
The result
What document handling in the container chain returns
Container documents free up time the moment they stop being retyped per stream.
Without Chainfill
Per stream
PDF, email, EDIFACT and scans are translated by hand into TMS fields, with terminal cross-checks happening after the fact.
With Chainfill
One pipeline
AI reads every source, validates references and terminal appointments up front, and delivers structured records to your TMS.
Less demurrage thanks to faster reference validation
Qualitative framing based on where time is lost in the container chain: document translation and late discovery of inconsistencies. Actual demurrage savings depend on your volume and partner mix.
Qualitative, based on the container document workflow.
Frequently asked questions
Finn Loots
Founder
Is your question not listed?
Call or email us. You will hear back from someone who knows the product.
Ready to remove the manual work?
See where Chainfill can save time in your document, email, and system workflows.