AI-powered API targets a persistent tracking problem
Carrier Logistics and LSP44 have partnered to develop an application programming interface (API) powered by artificial intelligence to help shippers and third-party logistics providers (3PLs) locate less-than-truckload (LTL) shipments when they lack a valid tracking number.
The collaboration brings together Carrier Logistics’ freight management software for LTL carriers and LSP44’s AI agents and API infrastructure for logistics service providers. The solution allows users to search for freight using alternative information, including company names, delivery locations, shipment descriptions and approximate dates, rather than relying exclusively on a shipment’s PRO number.
“We’ve opened up the API to accept not just a pro number, but description of the shipment, an approximate date, where it’s getting delivered, and the names of the parties,” said Ben Wiesen, president of Carrier Logistics.
The companies announced their partnership during Carrier Logistics’ user group conference in Chicago on Friday, October 9. According to Carrier Logistics, the solution is already live.
Resolving failed tracking requests at their source
Traditional tracking APIs depend on a valid PRO number, the identifier used to track LTL shipments. When a shipper or freight broker cannot provide the correct number, the carrier’s system may be unable to retrieve the shipment record. The inquiry then often shifts to a phone call or email, requiring a customer service representative to identify the freight manually.
As logistics companies increasingly automate communications, these unsuccessful tracking attempts can generate additional work for carrier support teams.
LSP44 pointed to RXO’s report that its AI agents automated more than 500,000 phone calls during the first quarter of 2026 as an indication of the growing scale of AI-driven communications in the sector.
At Carrier Logistics’ user conference on October 9, Jeremy Estep, head of sales at LSP44, also cited estimates suggesting that responding to bot communications can cost motor carriers more than $10 per shipment.
Nick Ruggiero, LSP44’s head of product, said manual tracking requests have long been accepted as an unavoidable operating expense across the LTL industry, with customer service teams absorbing the associated costs.
Wiesen highlighted the underlying limitation of electronic tracking: when neither party knows the correct shipment number, the digital exchange breaks down.
Rather than introducing additional AI tools to manage the resulting calls and emails, the two companies aim to resolve the identification problem directly within the API.
“We could put voice bots on our side to answer voice bots on your side, and email-responding AI to email it. But why? Why can’t we just solve the bottleneck and the fundamental problem?” Wiesen said.
How the shipment-matching technology works
The API searches recent shipment records and identifies potential matches using available information, including origin and destination, ZIP codes, company names and other shipment characteristics. Users can then compare the results against their own records to identify the correct freight and resume electronic tracking.
The identification process combines predefined search criteria with AI-based ranking. After the system generates a list of potential candidates, the AI evaluates discrepancies in the information supplied by the requester to determine which shipments are the most likely matches.
For example, the technology may recognize that a shipment number containing two incorrectly transcribed digits could correspond to an existing record. It may also prioritize a candidate whose ZIP code matches the search information, even if the recorded shipment weight differs from the details provided.
According to Wiesen, the system searches approximately one week’s worth of shipment records. Its approach is intended to reproduce the work a customer service representative would undertake to identify freight when the available information is incomplete.
Security measures are also built into the process. The API is password-protected and relies on account-specific credentials. Carrier Logistics said the system considers only shipments associated with validated accounts as potential matches, restricting the records that can be accessed through a search.
What this means for manual inquiries is unclear.
The partnership addresses a particular challenge for freight automation: finding requests that are falling over because the requesting system does not have a valid shipment identifier.
But in the real world, success will depend on how well the API can identify the right shipment from incomplete or inconsistent data. The software of the requesting company has also to be capable of using the returned results to resolve the inquiry without further manual intervention.
The companies have not said how many carriers or customers will be involved in the rollout or how much customer-service work the technology might eliminate.
“The result is unknown until the solution has been put in place and deployed,” Wiesen said.
We won’t know until we put it into play, deploy it,” he said.
That is, the partnership is an effort to tackle a specific barrier to automation, not a proven solution for all manual tracking issues.
Leveraging industry efforts on shipment visibility standardization
The effort comes as the LTL industry is working to improve the consistency of the shipment information shared between transportation systems.
The National Motor Freight Traffic Association’s Digital Standards Development Council has issued an In-Transit Visibility API standard that addresses shipment status, delays and estimated delivery times. It defines common milestones such as pickup, in transit, out for delivery and delivered, allowing shippers and logistics providers to read tracking updates consistently across different carriers.
The council’s framework also allows for authenticated access to detailed shipment information, with public access to some status information permitted. It aims to reduce reliance on telephone inquiries and unreliable tracking portals, it says.
Carrier Logistics and LSP44 are tackling a related, but different, problem. Yes , standardized data formats allow systems to talk to each other , but it does not mean that a platform will be able to find the right shipment if the tracking number is missing or wrong .
This is especially true for businesses that handle freight across multiple carriers and technology platforms. If an API call is successfully sent, but the system cannot find a corresponding shipment, it is because the data being sent cannot be linked to a record.
The new solution is intended to fill that gap by identifying probable shipment matches before a tracking request that requires a manual investigation.
Why this matters for logistics operators
As logistics providers automate an increasing share of their communications, missing or incorrect shipment identifiers can undermine the efficiency of digital tracking systems and transfer work back to carrier customer service teams.
Carrier Logistics and LSP44 are seeking to address this weakness at the API level, rather than adding further automation to handle the calls and emails generated by failed requests.
The technology’s actual value will depend on matching accuracy, integration with customers’ existing systems and adoption across the LTL industry. Until the rollout establishes how many inquiries can be resolved electronically, the extent of the expected reduction in manual work remains unproven.
