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Auto-answer track-and-trace emails

Parse inbound track-and-trace emails, pull the latest milestone from the carrier API, and reply with current status. Customers get answers without anyone touching the inbox.

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The prompt

I want to monitor our inbox for inbound track-and-trace requests from customers and brokers and get them answered automatically. Can you build me a flow that parses incoming emails and any attached PDFs for shipment references, pulls the latest milestone from the carrier API, and sends an automated status reply back to the requestor?

Just copy and paste the prompt into a new Parabola flow to get started.

What Parabola builds

A workflow with seven steps you can edit:

1. Monitor the inbox. The flow watches your shared track-and-trace mailbox. New emails get picked up automatically.

2. Extract the shipment reference. Body, signature block, forwarded thread, PDF attachment. The AI step pulls the BOL, PRO, container, or load number from wherever it's hiding.

3. Look up the carrier and account. Map the reference to the carrier and the customer account. Some requests cover multiple references in one email and each one gets its own lookup.

4. Pull the latest milestone from the API. Current location, last event, ETA, exception status. The flow hits the carrier API or the TMS for the freshest data available.

5. Compose the reply. A template per status type. Pickup confirmed reads one way. In transit with an updated ETA reads another. Delayed reads a third with the reason and the corrective action.

6. Send the reply. From the same shared inbox the request landed in. The customer sees a continuous thread, not a one-off response.

7. Log every interaction. Time, requestor, shipment, milestone, reply sent. Customer service has the record without anyone screenshotting an inbox.

Why teams stop doing this manually

The track-and-trace inbox is the bottleneck. Customers email asking for an ETA. Brokers email asking about a load they can't see in their portal. Internal sales reps email asking on behalf of the customer. Every request needs the same answer: someone opens the TMS, looks up the reference, reads the latest milestone, types the reply. A team of three operators can answer fifty a day on a good day.

The manual version breaks the moment the freight book scales. A new enterprise client drops three hundred emails a week into the shared inbox. A peak season triples the volume across every account. The carrier API has the answer in real time. The bottleneck is just the typing.

The cost of being slow is direct. Customers escalate. Internal sales reps interrupt operations. Brokers stop calling the requests in and start calling the relationship lead. The team that should be solving exceptions is spending its day re-typing status updates that the carrier API already published.

How it works

Step 1. Paste the prompt.

Open Parabola, paste the prompt in section 2, and let it ask follow-up questions about your shared inbox, your carrier API connections, and which templates you want per status.

Step 2. Connect your data.

Inbox for the inbound requests, carrier APIs for the milestone lookups, account directory for the customer context. Optional TMS pull for any shipment the carrier API doesn't cover.

Step 3. Run it continuously.

The flow watches the inbox, replies in real time, and escalates anything ambiguous. The team only sees the requests that genuinely need a human.

Related prompts

FAQ

What if the email has the shipment reference in a forwarded thread or a signature?

The AI extraction reads the entire email, including forwarded threads and signature blocks. It can also pull references from attached PDFs.

How does the flow handle an email with multiple shipment references?

Each reference gets its own lookup and the reply rolls them up into a single message. The customer sees one response with status for every load they asked about.

What about VIP accounts or sensitive shipments that need a human reply?

Configure an escalation rule. Any flagged account, sensitive lane, or shipment with an exception status routes to a human instead of an auto-reply.

Can the flow learn from a human's reply?

Yes. When a human takes over a thread, the flow logs the back-and-forth. Repeated patterns can be templated and added back to the auto-reply library.

How is this different from a customer portal?

A portal works for customers who use it. Most brokers and internal sales reps still email. This flow meets them where they already work, which is the inbox.
Stop typing the same status reply.
Paste the prompt, connect your inbox and carrier API, and let the auto-reply handle the routine ones.
Start for free