Inbound Email Processing

Overview #

Trackberry processes every email sent to your organization's inbox — not just the documents attached to it. When a freight forwarder, carrier, or supplier sends an email about a shipment, Trackberry:

1. Stores the email as a message on the shipment
2. Analyzes the content using AI to classify it, assess urgency, and extract key dates
3. Suggests or auto-applies status changes based on what the email says
4. Notifies your team when urgent updates arrive

This means your shipment timeline includes not just document uploads and status changes, but the full conversation around each shipment — arrival notices, delay alerts, inspection results, and more.

Sending Emails to Trackberry #

Your organization's inbound email address is your-slug@in.trackberry.ag — replace your-slug with your organization's URL slug.

Direct Send #

The simplest setup: have your suppliers, forwarders, and carriers send emails directly to your Trackberry address (To or CC).

Team Distribution Lists & Group Aliases #

You can also add your Trackberry inbound address to a team distribution list or group email alias. For example, if your logistics team has a shared mailbox like logistics@yourcompany.com, you can add your-slug@in.trackberry.ag as a member of that group.

When emails are sent to the group alias, your email provider expands the alias and delivers a copy to each member — including Trackberry. Even though Trackberry's address doesn't appear in the email's To or CC fields, Trackberry detects it from the envelope delivery headers and processes the email normally.

This means your team can keep using their existing email workflows, and Trackberry receives every shipment email automatically.

Supported providers: This works with most email providers that set standard delivery headers (Google Groups, Microsoft 365 distribution lists, custom aliases, etc.).

How Emails Are Matched to Shipments #

Threaded Emails (Replies) #

When someone replies to an existing email thread about a shipment, Trackberry uses the email headers (In-Reply-To, References) to match the reply to the correct shipment. This works automatically and is the most common case.

Out-of-Thread Emails #

Sometimes a forwarder or carrier sends an update about a shipment as a new email — not as a reply to an existing thread. In these cases, Trackberry looks for a transport reference (Bill of Lading or Air Waybill number) in the email subject line.

For example, if you have a shipment with B/L number MAEU123456789 and someone sends an email with subject:

"Arrival notice — MAEU123456789 — Rotterdam"

Trackberry matches it to the correct shipment automatically.

New Shipments #

If an email doesn't match any existing shipment (no reply headers and no transport reference match), Trackberry creates a new shipment and attaches any documents to it — just like before.

AI Email Analysis #

Every email with a meaningful body (more than a few words) is analyzed by AI. The analysis extracts:

Category #

Each email is classified into one of these categories:

Urgency #

Each email gets an urgency level:

Summary #

A one-line summary of the key information, such as:

• "Shipment inspection at warehouse, delivery delayed to tomorrow"
• "Customs clearance complete, ready for collection"
• "Vessel departed 2 days late due to weather"

Extracted Dates #

Any dates mentioned in the email are extracted:

• ETA — Revised estimated arrival date
• Delivery date — Actual or planned delivery
• Inspection date — Scheduled inspection or examination

Suggested Status #

When an email clearly indicates a status change, the AI suggests it:

• Arrived — Email confirms shipment has reached destination
• In Transit — Email confirms shipment has departed

Automatic Status Updates #

For low-risk transitions, Trackberry can apply status changes automatically without waiting for manual confirmation:

When auto-applied, the status change appears with an Auto-applied badge on the message and in the audit log.

For transitions that don't qualify for auto-apply (e.g., backward transitions or unexpected states), a "Mark as [Status]" button appears on the message so you can apply it manually.

Notifications #

When an email is classified as Warning or Critical urgency, Trackberry sends a notification email to all organization members who have alerts enabled. The notification includes:

• The urgency level (with color coding)
• The AI-generated summary
• Who sent the original email
• A link to the shipment

Viewing Messages #

Email messages appear in the Messages section on the shipment page. Each message shows:

• Sender name and email
• AI category badge (color-coded by urgency)
• Auto-applied badge if a status change was applied automatically
• Summary generated by AI
• Email body (expandable for long emails)
• Timestamp
• Extracted dates (ETA, delivery, inspection)
• Action button to apply a suggested status change

Messages update in real-time via Turbo Streams — when a new email arrives, it appears instantly without refreshing the page.

Examples #

Arrival with Inspection Delay #

From: adam@forwarder.com Subject: Beta Best / QORI FOODS SAC 006-45199442 Body: Dears, Shipment will be inspected at our location and tomorrow morning delivered to Varekamp. Unfortunately we were not able to deliver it today.

Trackberry classifies this as: - Category: Inspection Notice - Urgency: Warning - Summary: "Shipment inspection at warehouse, delivery delayed to tomorrow morning" - Suggested status: Arrived

Since the shipment was In Transit, the status is auto-applied to Arrived.

Simple Document Forward #

From: supplier@example.com Subject: Packing list - SHIP-001234 Body: Please find attached the packing list.

Trackberry classifies this as: - Category: Document Forwarding - Urgency: Info - No status change suggested, no notification sent

The attached PDF is processed normally through the document extraction pipeline.