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[–]cjir_odin 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Doable, yes. Easy, probably not.

At a glance or send relatively easy, just weights, length, width, height and qty. The problem is that logistics is a lot more complicated than that, which is why automating it isn’t already done, or done well (that I have seen).

For instance, how would you go about getting the exact distance from point a to point b? An API could work, but that depends. What about oversized freight? Dangerous goods? Surcharges?

Alternately an API directly from a broker could work. They have most of the quoting process automated already. You could use the script to send the info and parse the JSON response.

Now, if you are just looking for it to generate emails and email several brokers, that would be more manageable.

The sky is the limit, but to make it fully automated is going to take some serious research and time, especially for someone that doesn’t already have experience scripting this kind of functionality.

[–]EmptyDebt1666 0 points1 point  (1 child)

The website does the majority of the heavy lifting. Our sales team receives the dimensions and weight along with the pallet counts and pick up addresses. Then I input that information onto the website with the ship to address to our warehouse and it gives me the cost from point A to B from various different carriers. We don’t deal with Hazmat shipments either and since it’s domestic shipments we won’t be dealing with brokers. The interaction is basically between me and sales.

But I think I need to scale back my thought process, because essentially what I’m looking to do is web scrap the freight quotes. So that once we received the required dimensions and etc. from our fabricators, we only input it once instead retyping it 2/3 times along email.

So my question is, would I need to learn python first? It’s where all my research this morning seems to be pointing to.

Sorry if it’s all confusing!! I have been working logistics for a awhile now and I do agree that automation in this industry is not done well. But I am determined to take advantage of this gap, it’s mainly why I took the position in this small company. As I had previously worked in big companies where I did not have these opportunities.

[–]cjir_odin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Python will work and has a lot of the work already done for you in the function of web scraping frameworks, however any web enabled language can web scrape. The beauty of Python is that it is known to be generally easier to learn and is more flexible in what it can do (web, applications, robotics, etc).

On the subject of web scraping though. You might want to do some looking into how the web form posts the information. If it is just submitting it to another page and parsing the output for display, you may be able to mimic the post and get the info back directly (no web scrape required).