Back-office automation for forwarders · US ⇄ Mandarin-speaking world
Your team, minus the busywork.
Captain does the typing, tracking, and chasing your team hates: orders entered, containers tracked, quotes turned around in minutes instead of days. You approve; Captain does the rest.
You approve every step. Nothing moves without you.
Built for how transpacific forwarders really work
- US ⇄ Mandarin-speaking world
- We speak your partners’ language
- You approve every step
- Full audit trail
What Captain does
The repetitive work that fills your team’s day.
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Orders arrive as email PDFs and spreadsheets, then get keyed into CargoWise and your invoices by hand, line by line.
Captain reads each order, fills the entry in your system, and drafts the invoice. Your ops lead approves in one click.
You check it before it’s filed.
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Clients call to ask where their container is, and you often hear about a delay only once it’s already late.
Captain tracks every container by MBL/BOL and flags trouble early: weather, port congestion, and lane disruptions from conflict, before they reach your client.
It drafts the client update, in English or 中文. Send as-is or edit first.
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Tariffs shift overnight. A Chapter 99 change can swing the landed cost of a shipment you already quoted.
Captain watches Chapter 99 and the lanes you run, flags changes that hit your shipments, and prices quotes with today’s duty so your team decides on current numbers.
Decision support, not customs advice.
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Every forwarder runs a different stack, and most automation means renting another subscription that holds your data.
Captain connects to what you already run (CargoWise, Outlook or GSuite, your cloud or NAS) and becomes a system you own, built to your operation. We build it; you can hire us to run and expand it.
You own your implementation of Captain. Not a seat in someone else’s platform.
Connects with
- CargoWise
- Outlook
- GSuite
- AWS
- Google Cloud
- Synology NAS
QNAP and TrueNAS on request. No rip-and-replace: Captain works with the tools you already run.
Why it matters
Do more with the team you have. Keep your know-how in the company.
It isn’t the minutes. It’s the interruptions. Every “quick” order entry or status check pulls a senior person off real work, and getting back takes longer than the task itself. Captain absorbs the throwaway jobs, so your best people stay on the work that actually needs them.
More work done, same team
When the busywork is automated, the same people handle more volume.
Lower cost per shipment
Fewer manual hours and keying errors, on every order.
Know-how that stays
Captain captures how your company works. It stays with you, not in one person’s head.
Who’s behind Captain
I’ve worked both ends of the lane, in both languages.
I built Captain for transpacific forwarders, because I’ve lived on both ends of this lane.
Nate Conrad 郭天寧 · Founder
I’ve spent my adult life between the US, mainland China, and Taiwan, and I started learning Chinese in middle school. A Brown University graduate, I live in Taipei and work the lane directly, building Captain inside two partner forwarders that span the Pearl River Delta and the US. I learned the stakes the hard way: my last company imported solar panels and batteries across this lane, and swinging tariffs and uncertainty nearly sank it. So I build for the part you can control: your own operation, running clean and steady.
Proof
Working with our first forwarders.
Right now we’re deep at work with two partner forwarders moving freight between the Pearl River Delta and the US.
Get a free assessmentSecurity & data handling
Your client data stays yours.
Where does your data go? Here’s the short answer.
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Your data stays in your system
Captain runs in your own cloud or NAS (AWS, Google Cloud, or Synology). Your client lists and rates never sit in a shared platform.
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Encrypted in transit & at rest
Strong, standard encryption on every connection and every stored record.
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We don’t train on your data
Your shipments, clients, and rates are never used to train shared or third-party models, and aren’t retained beyond the request.
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Access controls & audit trail
Role-based access. A full log of every action Captain takes.
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A person approves the sensitive steps
Nothing goes out to your clients without your team’s sign-off.
Security → Security questions, DPA, or subprocessor list? See my contact card
Working together
How a pilot runs.
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We map your workflows
We sit with your real orders and trace where the hours go.
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Captain goes live on one workflow
It runs on your actual work, with your team approving every step.
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We measure, you decide
We count the hours saved together, then expand only what earns its place.
A one-time build, then an optional retainer to run and expand your Captain, structured to fit how you work.
Best fit: transpacific forwarders moving real volume on the US-Asia lane, whether you run CargoWise or still live in email and spreadsheets. If you’re single-lane domestic or pre-systems, we’re probably not your tool yet.
See what Captain can take off your plate.
A free 45-minute assessment of your real workflows. We show you, in hours and dollars, what Captain can take over. We work from your actual orders, not a slide deck.
The offer
- We don’t invoice until Captain is live on your real order entry. The terms of that milestone are set out in your pilot agreement before we start.
- On the workflows Captain takes over, teams target several hours back each week. That is real capacity against an ops hire you’d otherwise have to make. We measure the real numbers with you during the pilot.
- We take on one forwarder a quarter, so each build is done right. Applications for the next slot are open.
Get in touch
Get your free automation assessment
Tell us about your lanes, your volume, and the tools you run. We’ll come back with a clear answer: here’s what you can automate.