How RoadEx eliminated 70% of manual shipment-processing work with Melrose

RoadEx America is an asset-based drayage carrier moving full-container freight for direct importers, exporters, freight forwarders, and customs brokers. Serving major U.S. import gateways, RoadEx combines dependable asset capacity, operational expertise, and real-time visibility technology to move time-sensitive cargo.

After establishing itself as a leading drayage carrier in California, RoadEx began expanding its services to Savannah, Seattle, and Tacoma. As the business took on new markets and larger customers, President Lisa Wan recognized that the operations supporting RoadEx's growth needed to scale with it.

At the time, most of the company’s shipment processes were highly manual. Customer service reps received dozens of orders a day via email, PDF, and a patchwork of customer platforms. Each one followed a unique customer format, requiring reps to parse and interpret more than 50 required data fields. Once the information was extracted, they applied each customer’s scheduling and handling SOPs to enter the shipment into PortPro, RoadEx’s TMS. This process alone took up to five minutes per order.

With that step completed, reps had to re-enter everything into each customer’s portal to confirm orders and schedule delivery appointments. Across customers moving hundreds or thousands of containers, that work stacked up, holding reps back from supporting more accounts and increasing the risk of data mismatches that could disrupt warehouse staffing plans.

“Delivery timing accuracy is critical for our customers,” explains Lisa. “Any time a container is delayed, their staff is sitting idle, and that directly incurs costs.”

This system disconnect also created a visibility gap after hours. RoadEx drivers moved freight around the clock, but load updates still depended on dispatchers manually entering updates into customer portals during the workday. As a result, shipment status lagged until someone returned to a desk, leaving customers with outdated information.

The delay rippled through the rest of the workflow. Lisa explains, “We’d get a call from the customer about a delayed shipment, then call the driver, then reconcile the latest load information before we could call the customer back.” What should have been a routine update turned into a day’s worth of back-and-forth.

For accounts that supplied their own chassis, team members had to chase updates across drivers and systems to report each asset’s pickup, use, and return status. Any gaps in tracking could lead to equipment charges and hours spent following up with customers to reconcile the details.

When RoadEx onboarded a top-three U.S. importer with over 10,000 containers to move each year, Lisa considered hiring more teammates. However, she knew that additional headcount wouldn’t solve the underlying scalability challenge. So she began exploring solutions that could deliver real-time visibility and streamline order intake and scheduling to support sustainable growth.

Throughout her search, she prioritized finding a collaborative partner with deep logistics expertise. The right one would adapt to RoadEx’s needs, rather than forcing the team to reshape proven processes around rigid technology.

That’s when she discovered Melrose. Their purpose-built AI operations platform and first-hand logistics expertise convinced her she’d found the right partner.

Lisa was immediately impressed with how Melrose worked like a true logistics partner. The platform connected to PortPro, email inbox, customer platforms, and chassis providers without the need for complex data migration. Collaborating closely with the RoadEx team, Melrose then mapped the company’s day-to-day logistics workflows, customer requirements, and business rules. The result was a unified automation layer that fit seamlessly into existing operations.

Today, Lisa’s reps complete a five-minute process with a single click. Using Melrose Orders, they automatically parse order details from any source and enter them into the TMS and customer portals. As a result, the same team handles more orders while creating capacity to support RoadEx’s customers. Meanwhile, shippers get reliable delivery windows sooner, without the risk of misaligned warehouse staffing and the idle labor costs.

Appointment scheduling is just as efficient. With Melrose’s automations, reps review each order, check availability, and secure the appropriate time slot in seconds. To help RoadEx support high-volume customers, Melrose even built a custom workflow that schedules dozens of appointments in a single batch, enabling Lisa and her team to keep thousands of containers moving.

Once a container is in transit, Melrose automatically captures EDI 214 milestones, PODs, and other updates as drivers add them in the TMS. Those updates sync across each customer’s platform, giving customers real-time shipment visibility and eliminating the need for manual status requests, freeing teams to focus on proactive customer support and relationship building.

Melrose stays hands-on as RoadEx’s needs evolve, identifying opportunities to support the company’s growth. As a result, Lisa and her team scale freight operations across new ports without sacrificing agility or overloading the team.

Today, Melrose runs RoadEx’s key shipment processes end-to-end so Lisa’s team can move more freight without increasing administrative workload or headcount. Reps focus on serving clients and expanding their portfolio, while customers get the real-time visibility and consistency they expect on every container.

Lisa is already working with Melrose to extend automation into RoadEx’s invoicing workflows to accelerate payment collection and strengthen cash flow.