#4: How we used AI to hit 99% accuracy in cross-border freight document processing
If your US-MX shipments are getting stuck at the border for days or weeks on end, the cause is likely inefficient handoffs of documents. Read to learn how we used AI to solve this problem
At Nuvocargo, we’ve spent years deep in U.S.-Mexico cross-border freight, building software and iterating on best practices for one of the most complex supply chains on planet Earth.
If there’s one thing you learn fast in cross-border freight it’s that nothing can move to the next step of the process without the right documents: invoices, packing lists, pedimentos, DODAs, certificates of origin, etc.
However, all the processes around documents for freight tend to be very manual and cause a lot of pain, in both domestic US freight and especially in US-MX cross-border freight. Another example of manual document processes is explained in my previous post how we used AI to automate 90% of POD validation.
The pain
One mistake in the US-MX documents process and your truck can be stuck at the border for days or weeks. This problem impacts all sizes of companies: we hear stories every week from small shippers all the way to multibillion dollar corporations of how their shipments are stuck at the US-MX border for months.
The hidden cause is almost always documents and the handoffs related to those documents.
Specifically, the challenges are:
High-volume: hundreds of loads a day means hundreds or thousands of documents per day.
Messy: random PDFs buried in email threads, attachments, and unstructured WhatsApp group chats.
Repetitive + error-prone: thousands of clicks to re-enter SKUs, HTS codes, consignee info.
High-stakes: one mistake and you’re holding up trucks, missing windows, upsetting customers.
We solved this problem through a combination of building in the right business logic into NuvoOS for border crossing automations alongside a partnership with Extend, an AI startup focused on document processing.
Today we are seeing 97-99% accuracy with nearly zero human involvement through document intake, classification, extraction, and attribution to a shipment.
Why Extend
At Nuvocargo we build our own software and often build on top of LLM ourselves. However, in many cases, it’s smarter to partner with great AI vendors and startups. A recent example is how we integrated with Convoy to give our customers access to 30,000+ well vetted carriers with end to end automation in a matter of weeks. For AI document processing, we felt partnering with our fellow YC startup Extend was a similarly smart decision.
Extend has been pushing the frontier on AI for messy, real-world docs. By pairing Extend’s AI with our orchestration layer in NuvoOS, we achieved highly impactful results and near perfect accuracy much faster than if we had built it ourselves.
How It Works in NuvoOS:
Ingests documents from Zendesk, email, and WhatsApp, eliminating the need for manual uploads or searching multiple channels.
Classifies by type: Commercial Invoice, Packing List, Pedimento Layout, Timbrado, DODA, Entry, BOL, POD and instantly routes each file to the right workflow.
Extracts structured data: Consignee, SKU, invoice number, merchandise description, HTS codes, quantities, unit values, currency, etc., so our teams work from complete, standardized data.
Links to the correct shipment in NuvoOS automatically, so every document is in the right place for customs clearance.
Our orchestration logic decides when to run each step, handles exceptions, and continuously learns from human feedback.
The Results
4-5 hours per week saved per operations rep working on document processing
97–99% accuracy across classification, extraction, and attribution
Tens of thousands of documents processed
Faster customs brokerage filings, minimal manual touch
Today when our own operations teams or our customers log into NuvoOS, shipments have most of their key documents available, classified, extracted and we have significantly reduced any bottlenecks related to documents throughout the end to end lifecycle of North America truckload freight.
If you want a demo of how we’re processing documents with AI or of Nuvo OS (our AI native operating system for North America freight), please book some time with our team here.
We’re always excited to share any of our learnings and how we are helping North American shippers reduce freight spend, boost customer service levels, and adopt AI across their entire North America supply chain.
I think a similar document processing problem exists in the shipping/warehouse industry for importing via cargo ships, do you see overlaps in the industries?