Shipment Workflow Templates: Your Freight Forwarding SOP on Every Job
Shipment workflow templates turn a freight forwarder's standard operating procedure into milestones and tasks that run on every shipment. In Zavin, each step has an owner and a due date tied to ETD, ETA, or a cutoff. The right template attaches automatically, and Zavin Autopilot keeps it moving from emails and tracking events.
Shipment Workflows is part of Zavin's Shipment Management module. Zavin is the AI operating system for freight forwarders.
Last updated: October 2026
Ops copilot
ZVN-84291 · SHA→LAX
On file ZVN-84291
Docs · EDI · Track liveCorrection draft on MBL-3012 · resolution window 4h before cutoff
- 15 min
- Between tracking checks on every live shipment
- 20 · 95%
- Reviewed replies and approval rate before any reply sends itself
- ~50%
- Routine email handled end-to-end by AI
- < 14 days
- To go live — no migration
Your SOP Lives in a Binder. Your Shipments Live in the Inbox.
Every forwarder has a way a shipment should run: chase shipping instructions five days before the SI cutoff, submit the VGM before the terminal deadline, send the pre-alert when the vessel sails, issue the arrival notice before the box lands. In practice, that knowledge sits with a few experienced coordinators.
Steps get missed not because people do not know them, but because nobody is holding the list on a busy Tuesday. Under the IMO's SOLAS container-weight rule, in force since 1 July 2016, a packed container without a verified gross mass shall not be loaded onto the ship — so a missed VGM becomes a rolled container, and a late arrival notice becomes a demurrage argument. Zavin makes the SOP part of the shipment itself.
Steps get missed not because people do not know them, but because nobody is holding the list on a busy Tuesday.
Design the Shipment Workflow Template Once
Templates are built in Settings by dragging steps into order. Each step is either a milestone, an event that happens to the cargo, or a task, something a person does. For each one you set:
- The role that owns it, such as export coordinator or documentation desk.
- Its due date, as an anchor — ETD, ETA, a cutoff, or the previous step — plus or minus an offset.
- Whether it applies per house or per console, and whether it is required or optional.
- What completes it automatically, such as a milestone being recorded or a document being released.
- An optional CargoWise event code, so the milestone can be pushed to your system of record.
The Right Plan on Every Shipment
Zavin attaches the most specific template that fits each shipment, in this order:
Customer — a template agreed with one customer, such as a retailer with its own booking rules.
Mode, direction, and freight type — for example, sea export FCL.
Mode and direction — for example, air import.
Default — the company-wide plan for everything else.
Example: A Sea Export FCL Template
A typical sea export FCL template might read like this. Each due date is a rule, not a fixed day, so the plan fits every sailing.
Booking confirmed — milestone, completed when the carrier confirmation is recorded.
Shipping instructions submitted — task for the documentation desk, due one day before the SI cutoff.
VGM submitted — task, due before the VGM cutoff, with an Autopilot reminder.
Container gated in — milestone, completed from the tracking feed.
Vessel departed — milestone, completed from the tracking feed at ETD.
House bill issued — task, completed when the HBL is released in document control.
Pre-alert sent to destination — task, due one day after ETD.
Dates That Keep Up With Reality
When an ETA or a cutoff changes, every pending due date moves with it, and completed steps stay exactly as they were. A two-day delay at transshipment does not leave the arrival notice task due on the wrong day.
Milestones are recorded once and in the right order, and a coordinator can backdate one when the event happened before anyone logged it. When a step breaches its deadline, Zavin raises a task and a notification for the person responsible, instead of waiting for someone to notice.
Zavin Autopilot Keeps the Workflow Moving
Templates say what should happen. Zavin Autopilot does the parts that come from outside: the emails, the carrier events, and the reminders.
- Emails find their shipment — messages are matched using validated references, including air waybill check digits and ISO 6346 container numbers.
- Bookings start the workflow — when a booking email creates the shipment, the matching template attaches at once; air booking emails open as a draft shipment for your team to review.
- Updates become proposals — when an email changes a date or a detail, Zavin proposes the change and quotes the exact line it came from.
- Documents are drafted on time — following your rules, with a task to send them.
- Tracking is checked every 15 minutes — and carrier events become milestones on the workflow.
- Cutoff reminders — for cargo, documents, dangerous goods, VGM, delivery confirmation, and proof of delivery.
- Status replies — customer “any update?” emails answered from the shipment's own data.
Autonomy You Grant, Not Assume
Zavin Autopilot starts with a person reviewing its work. Within Zavin Autopilot, status replies are the only shipment messages that can send on their own, and only after at least 20 human-reviewed replies in 14 days, with 95% or more approved without edits and none rejected. A single rejection puts a person back in charge.
Nobody can switch that on by hand to skip the evidence, and every action Autopilot takes is recorded in a journal the team can read. Start in drafts-only mode and widen what runs automatically as confidence grows.
A single rejection puts a person back in charge.
Works Alongside CargoWise
Zavin works alongside CargoWise and Magaya rather than replacing them. Workflow milestones can be pushed to CargoWise as events, so your system of record stays current while Zavin runs the day-to-day.
The workflow and milestone tabs appear on the shipment, the house, and the console, and every overdue step feeds the Zavin Autopilot attention list in the control tower, so the control tower and the SOP always agree.
Connected Modules
Shipment Workflows is one module of the Zavin operating system — every module below works from the same data. See the full platform →
FAQs
Shipment Workflows: Common Questions
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Running Itself.
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Freight forwarders & NVOCCs · No migration · No IT project · Transparent pricing