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.).

Setting Up with Microsoft 365 (Outlook) #

If your team uses Microsoft 365, the recommended setup is to add your Trackberry inbound address as an external contact, then add that contact to an existing distribution group (e.g., logistics@yourcompany.com). This takes about 2 minutes.

Step 1 — Create a contact for the Trackberry address

1. Open the Microsoft 365 Admin Center (admin.microsoft.com) — you'll need admin rights.
2. Go to Contacts in the left menu and click Add a contact.
3. Fill in the details:
   • First name: Trackberry.com
   • Last name: Container Tracking
   • Email address: your-slug@in.trackberry.com (replace your-slug with your organization name)
4. Save the contact.

Step 2 — Add the contact to a distribution group

1. In the Admin Center, go to Teams & groups → Active teams & groups.
2. Select the distribution list or group you want to use (e.g., your logistics team group).
3. Open the Members tab and click Add members.
4. Search for the contact you just created ("Trackberry.com Container Tracking") and add it.
5. Save.

From this point on, any email sent to that group will also be delivered to Trackberry and processed automatically.

No coordination needed with forwarders. The key advantage of this setup is that your freight forwarders and suppliers don't need to change anything — they keep emailing your existing logistics address, and Trackberry receives every shipment update automatically.

For more details on each step, see this step-by-step guide with screenshots.

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.

Automatic Document Downloads #

For inspection notice emails that contain download links (rather than attached files), Trackberry automatically downloads the linked document and attaches it to the shipment. This happens in the background — large inspection reports (30–50 MB) are handled without any manual action from your team.

Links are identified by AI: marketing footers, social media icons, and unsubscribe links are ignored. Only genuine document download links are fetched.

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 the destination port or airport
• In Transit — Email confirms shipment has departed
• In Warehouse — Email confirms the container has been received at a warehouse or cold store (e.g. a freight forwarder notifying you the cargo is in their facility and available for collection)

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.

Full-Screen Email Viewer #

For shipments with many messages, the sidebar card can feel cramped. Click the Expand button in the top-right corner of the Messages card to open the full-screen email viewer.

Layout #

The viewer uses a two-pane layout, similar to a desktop email client:

• Left pane — A scrollable message list showing the sender name, subject line, preview text, date, and category badge for each email
• Right pane — The full detail of the selected email, including sender avatar, complete body, AI analysis (category, urgency, summary), extracted dates, suggested actions, and attached documents

Using the Viewer #

• Select a message — Click any message in the left pane to view its full content on the right. The first message is selected automatically when you open the viewer.
• View attachments — Documents uploaded via the email appear in the attachments footer at the bottom of the right pane, with file size and a download link.
• Apply suggested actions — If the AI detected a status change, the action button appears in the right pane just like it does in the regular message card.
• Close the viewer — Click outside the viewer, press Escape, or click the × Close button in the top-right corner.

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.

Quality Inspection Report — Attached File #

From: inspector@sgsinspections.com Subject: Inspection Report — MEDU9709500 Body: Please find attached the quality inspection report for the above shipment. Attachment: Inspection_Report_MEDU9709500.pdf (2.4 MB)

Trackberry classifies this as: - Category: Inspection Notice - Urgency: Warning - The attached PDF is saved to the shipment's documents as an Inspection Report

Quality Inspection Report — Link to Download #

Some inspection platforms (SGS, Bureau Veritas, PPECB, etc.) do not attach the report as a file. Instead, they send an email with a link to download the report — which can be 30–50 MB.

From: noreply@inspectionportal.com Subject: Your inspection report is ready — Ref. 2024-INS-00812 Body: Your inspection report is now available. Click the link below to download: https://portal.inspectionportal.com/reports/download?ref=2024-INS-00812

Trackberry handles this automatically: 1. The email is classified as Inspection Notice 2. All links in the email are scanned — the AI identifies which ones are report download links 3. The file is downloaded in the background (even for large files) 4. It appears in the shipment's documents as an Inspection Report

You don't need to click the link yourself or manually upload anything.

Freight Forwarder Invoice #

From: invoicing@myforwarder.com Subject: Invoice — Services for MAEU123456789 Attachment: Invoice_2024-0042.pdf

Trackberry recognises the attached file as an invoice from a freight/logistics company and saves it to the shipment. It appears in the documents tab alongside the packing list, Bill of Lading, and other files — keeping everything in one place.

Emails Without Container Numbers #

Some emails — especially automated notifications from freight forwarders — reference shipments using internal booking codes or job numbers instead of container numbers.

For example:

From: notifications@forwarder.com Subject: Shipment NS-004102 has been received

Trackberry looks for an ISO 6346 container number in the email subject and body (e.g. MSCU1234567). If none is found and the email can't be matched to an existing shipment by transport reference, the email and any attachments are saved but the shipment is flagged as Needs Assignment.

Needs Assignment Section #

Shipments waiting to be assigned appear in a blue Needs Assignment section at the top of your shipments page, separate from the main list and from pending approvals.

For each email, you can:

• View — Open the shipment to read the email body and review any attached documents
• Assign to a shipment — Select the correct shipment from the dropdown, then click Assign. Trackberry moves all documents and messages to that shipment and processes any new attachments automatically. The orphaned placeholder is deleted.
• Delete — Permanently remove the placeholder and its documents if the email is irrelevant (e.g. spam, wrong inbox).

Tip: If your freight forwarder consistently sends emails without container numbers, ask them to include the container number in the subject line. Trackberry will then match future emails automatically.