Tech & AI Oct 20, 2026 · 7 min read

AI agents move into customs filing and truckload tender decisions

AI now drafts customs entries in Dubai and picks which loads Werner accepts. Forwarder Pentagon Freight Services is extending AI vendor Ripple from its UK customs work to its Jebel Ali warehouse in Dubai. In the UK, Ripple says it removed up to 1,400 hours a week of manual customs preparation. In US trucking, Werner says Graypool’s software “automates the large majority of our tender decisions.” Both figures are company claims. We think the paperwork and the yes-or-no calls are now being automated on both sides of a forwarder’s desk. Expect carriers to answer your load offers faster, and to say no faster. Our call: at least two more large forwarders will name an AI customs vendor by end of Q1 2027.

AI is taking over the paperwork and the yes-or-no calls in freight. Forwarders sit in the middle
Two announcements 24 hours apart show where AI in freight has got to.
On 20 October 2026, AI vendor Ripple said Pentagon Freight Services had chosen it to run customs and warehouse operations in the United Arab Emirates. Ripple says that in the UK, where it already handles customs work for Pentagon, it has removed up to 1,400 hours a week of manual customs preparation. It also says it cut clearance costs by 60% and software costs by 40%.
On 19 October, US truckload software firm HOPTEK relaunched as Graypool. It disclosed $5 million in pre-seed funding. Werner Enterprises, one of the largest US truckload carriers, is both an investor and a customer. Werner’s Jaime Jones said: “Graypool automates the large majority of our tender decisions.”
All of these performance numbers come from the companies’ own press releases. We found no independent audit of them. Treat them as claims.
Our view is simple. AI in logistics has moved past chatbots and email summaries. It is now drafting regulated customs paperwork, and it is making the call on whether a truck takes a load. Forwarders sit between both. They file customs for shippers, and they offer freight to carriers. Over the next year, they will be using these tools on one side and negotiating against them on the other.

What Pentagon is handing to Ripple

Pentagon is a UK-headquartered forwarder, project-logistics and ships-agency business with more than 50 years of history. It has more than 1,200 employees across 65 offices worldwide and became part of the JAS group in 2025, according to the release.
The new deal covers Pentagon’s warehouse and yard in the Jebel Ali Free Zone (JAFZA) in Dubai. A free zone is an area where goods can be stored without paying import duty until they leave. Ripple will handle these jobs there:

customs documents and entry preparation

export documents

inventory of OCTG (oil-country tubular goods: the steel pipe used in oil and gas wells)

warehouse operations

storage billing

operational reporting

The way the system works matters. Ripple pulls data from commercial invoices, packing lists and Bills of Entry (the import declaration filed in the UAE). It then prepares customs and shipping documents for staff to check and approve. Anything unusual goes to authorised staff, and every step gets a timestamped log for audits. Ripple says the system will become a single record for every pipe and piece of oilfield equipment on site, generate storage statements automatically, and let Pentagon’s customers check their own stock.
So this is not a robot filing entries on its own. A human still validates the declaration. What has changed is who does the typing, the matching and the first draft.
Ripple’s CEO, Adrian Smith, said Pentagon handles cargo where “every pipe, every declaration and every storage day has to be accurately accounted for.” He described the UK-to-UAE move this way: AI “earns the right to do more.”
Pentagon’s Alex Lewis, Area Director Middle East & India, was frank about the starting point. “Much of that has relied on manual data entry and spreadsheets,” he said. He said Ripple gives the business “a single source of truth, faster and more accurate billing,” and “the capacity to grow volumes without growing headcount at the same rate.”
That last line is the honest business case. It is not about replacing the customs team. It is about not hiring the next five people when volume grows.

How the JAS deal grew

This is the second step in a short time. On 31 July 2026, JAS said it had picked Ripple as a strategic AI partner. JAS has more than 8,000 employees across more than 100 countries. That deal covered five back-office workflows: supplier onboarding and risk, incident management, QHSE (quality, health, safety and environment), audits and ESG (environmental, social and governance) reporting. Ripple called it its largest enterprise deployment to date. JAS’s Andrea Goeman said at the time: “Our specific AI automation needs were not met through off-the-shelf solutions.”
Customs was not on that July list. Three months later, Ripple is preparing customs entries for a JAS company in a second country. That is the pattern vendors want: start with low-risk compliance paperwork, show results, then move into regulated filing.
Ripple also makes broader claims for its platform: 95% less manual effort, accuracy above 99% and up to 75% lower technology costs. Again, those are its own numbers. “99%+ accuracy” on what, measured how, and against which baseline, the release does not say. Any forwarder hearing that pitch should ask.

What Graypool does for carriers

Graypool sells to the carrier side of US trucking. It has two products in use today.
Graypool Accept checks each contract and spot tender against the carrier’s network plan. A tender is an offer of a load, from a shipper or broker, to a carrier. Contract freight is moved at rates agreed in advance; spot freight is priced load by load. Accept takes the profitable freight, picks how to run it, and tracks volume against what the carrier has committed to.
Graypool Source goes looking for spot freight on load boards and from shippers and 3PLs (third-party logistics firms, which include brokers and forwarders). It then bids on or books loads within rules the carrier sets.
The company’s figures: Werner is awarded $1.5 million in freight a week through Source. Across customers, carriers have booked $150 million in annualised freight revenue through Source. Prime, Hirschbach and Marten are named as users alongside Werner. The $5 million round came from Jerk Ventures, Kearney, LPX Partners (the investment arm of Logistics Plus), Venture 53 and Werner.
CEO Marc Held put the problem plainly: “Most carriers still make those calls by hand, one email and one phone call at a time.” His pitch: “Every load is a decision, and every decision is money — made or lost in the minutes before a truck moves.”
Werner’s Jones explained what happens to freight that doesn’t fit: “On the loads that don’t fit, it finds a better option before we commit a truck.”

Why this lands now in trucking

Timing matters. US truckload has tightened this year. FreightWaves reported on 17 September that its national Outbound Tender Rejection Index climbed to 14.32% in the days after Labor Day. That index measures the share of contracted loads carriers turn down. FreightWaves analyst Zach Strickland pointed back to a three-year downturn when rejection rates were all below 5%. On 25 September it put the index at 14%. On 25 August, it reported a cycle peak above 17.5% around the Fourth of July, against roughly 6% in January.
When carriers turn down one load in seven, they have choices. Software that ranks those choices in seconds lets them use that leverage more often and more consistently. A human dispatcher might take a marginal load to keep a customer happy. A rules engine running “one company strategy,” in Held’s words, is less likely to.

What forwarders should expect

On customs, three things follow.
First, the sales pitch has a benchmark now. Vendors will quote hours saved per week and clearance cost per entry. Expect to hear “1,400 hours” and “60%” in meetings. Ask for the baseline, the entry mix, and who signs the declaration.
Second, liability doesn’t move. As a rule, the licensed broker or declarant stays responsible for what is filed. Pentagon’s set-up keeps a human approving each document. Any forwarder copying it should do the same, and keep the audit logs.
Third, the gap between big and mid-size forwarders may narrow on paperwork. Pentagon is a mid-size player inside a larger group. If a 65-office forwarder can automate entry preparation, the cost advantage of the very largest networks on documentation shrinks.
On US truckload, the effect is on the other side of the table.
Brokers and forwarders tendering loads to large asset carriers (carriers that own their trucks) will increasingly be answered by software. Loads that fit a carrier’s network will be accepted quickly. Loads that don’t, such as odd lanes, bad appointment times or weak backhauls, will be turned down faster or bid back higher. Spot freight posted on load boards will meet automated bids from the same carriers.
That rewards forwarders who give clean, complete tender data early. It punishes last-minute, vague load offers. If your pricing desk still relies on a phone call to talk a carrier into a load, that call is getting harder to win.

Our prediction

We think customs entry preparation becomes the next standard AI job inside forwarders, after email triage and document capture. Our call: by the end of Q1 2027, at least two more forwarders with 50 or more offices will publicly name an AI vendor to prepare customs entries in production, not as a pilot.
On trucking, we expect at least one more top-25 US truckload carrier to disclose automated tender acceptance, through Graypool or a rival, within six months. Brokers should plan for faster rejections on non-fitting loads before next spring’s contract bid season.

Sources