Automation for Hauliers: Orders, Delivery Proof, Invoicing
By CodexierPublished 6 min read
In a small haulage company the trucks are rarely the bottleneck. The office is: orders arrive in five different ways, delivery notes come back as crumpled paper or blurry photos, and invoicing waits until someone has a free evening. This guide follows one order from booking to invoice and shows which steps are worth automating and which are better left alone.
One order, followed end to end
Picture a typical job. A customer emails on Tuesday afternoon asking for two pallets from Jönköping to Borås on Thursday. Someone reads the mail, types the details into a planning sheet, calls the driver, and writes a delivery note. On Thursday the driver gets a signature, snaps a photo and sends it on WhatsApp. At the end of the month somebody searches that chat for proof, adds a fuel surcharge by hand and creates the invoice in Fortnox or Visma. The same addresses, weights and references were typed three or four times. Each wrong invoice becomes a phone call.
Order intake from email and portals
Orders tend to arrive through a mix of channels: free-text email, PDF order forms, a shipper's booking portal and the occasional phone call. Automation cannot make every customer use one form, but it can make every channel end up in the same place.
- A shared order mailbox where an automation reads new mail, pulls out pick-up, delivery, date, goods and reference, and creates a draft order for a person to confirm.
- A simple web booking form for regular customers, with the fields you actually need and validation on postcodes and dates.
- Scheduled imports from shippers' portals where they offer an export or an API, instead of copying bookings by hand.
The important design choice is the confirmation step. An AI model is good at reading a messy email, but it can misread a date or a street number. Letting it prepare the order and a person approve it keeps the speed and removes the risk.
Delivery proof and photos from drivers
Proof of delivery is where most small hauliers lose track. The fix is less about technology than about giving drivers one place to send it, tied to the order.
| Approach | What the driver does | What the office gets | Fits when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Photo to a shared chat | Takes a photo and posts it | An unsorted stream of images | Very few orders a day |
| Link per order by SMS | Opens the link, takes photo, gets signature on screen | Proof attached to the right order automatically | Several drivers, mostly regular routes |
| Driver app or TMS module | Works through the day's list in an app | Status, times, proof and deviations | Larger fleet or complex routes |
Photos of people and signatures are personal data. Store them with the order, restrict who can see them and delete them on a schedule you can explain.
For many small firms the middle row is the sweet spot: no app to install, and the proof lands where the invoice will need it. If you are weighing a proper app, our guide on a driver app for transport companies covers that decision.
Invoicing and fuel surcharges
Once the order and its proof live in one record, invoicing becomes a matter of rules rather than memory. The automation collects completed and proven orders, applies the customer's agreed price list, adds the fuel surcharge for the period and creates invoice drafts in your accounting system for someone to review and send.
- Store each customer's price basis: per pallet, per kilo, per kilometre or fixed per route.
- Keep the fuel surcharge as a single figure per period that someone updates, instead of editing each invoice.
- Add waiting time and extra stops only when the driver has recorded them against the order.
- Create drafts in Fortnox or Visma through their API with the customer's reference and the proof attached.
- Flag orders without proof instead of invoicing them, so disputes are rare.
Supplier invoices for diesel, tolls and workshop visits are a separate flow, covered in our guide to automating supplier invoices in Fortnox.
Where a TMS fits and where it does not
A transport management system bundles planning, driver apps, proof of delivery and invoicing. It is often too heavy, and too expensive per vehicle, for a firm with a handful of trucks and mostly regular customers.
Choose a TMS
You plan many stops per vehicle each day, need route optimisation, or large shippers require their integrations.
Choose light automation
Your routes are fairly stable, the pain is admin rather than planning, and you already have accounting software you like.
Combine them
You have a TMS but still retype orders into it or export invoices by hand. Automate the edges, keep the core.
When you do not need this at all: if you run one or two trucks for a few steady customers and invoicing takes an hour a month, a tidy spreadsheet and a fixed routine will serve you better than any system. We would say so on a short call. If the admin has grown past that, our workflow automation service is priced on the pricing page.
Frequently asked questions
Can AI read our customers' order emails reliably?
It reads most well-written emails correctly, but it can misread dates, street numbers or references. That is why we let it prepare a draft and have a person confirm it with one click. The time saved is in not typing, not in skipping the check.
Do drivers need to install an app?
Not necessarily. A link sent by SMS for each order lets the driver take a photo and collect a signature in the phone's browser. An app becomes worth it when drivers handle many stops per day or need offline use in poor coverage.
Does this work with Fortnox and Visma?
Yes. Both have APIs that let an automation create customers, invoice drafts and attachments. We create drafts rather than sending invoices automatically, so someone still reviews amounts before they go out.
How long does a first automation take?
A single flow, such as order email to draft order or completed order to invoice draft, is typically a matter of weeks including a test period with real orders. Widening it to more customers and channels comes after that month of running.
Map your order flow in 15 minutes
Tell us how orders arrive and how you invoice today. We will point out the one hand-off worth automating first, or tell you that a better routine is enough.
Book a free 15-minute call