Flexport launches MCP Server for AI agents to book freight

Flexport has launched an MCP (Model Context Protocol) Server that enables shippers' AI agents to manage freight on its platform. This server allows businesses to interact with AI agents like Claude, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, or their own internal agents using plain language. The agents can perform various tasks, including tracking shipments, identifying exceptions or customs holds, searching rates for any lane, and completing bookings.

All of this can be done without the need for a login to Flexport's platform. The server is part of a larger release from the San Francisco-based forwarder, which currently serves over 13,000 companies. The update also extends Flexport Atlas beyond ocean freight and incorporates customs tools. Flexport's CEO, Ryan Petersen, envisions a future of autonomous global logistics where supply chains can anticipate problems, calculate solutions, and execute them in a continuous self-improvement loop.

The server receives requests from AI agents, which are then processed by Flexport's own AI agents, handling 21 million tasks annually. Each agent runs with governance and traceability guardrails, and every exception is routed to a human expert for intervention. Flexport has also expanded its Customs Technology Suite, which audits entries against hundreds of rules before they reach government agencies.

Customers can now build custom audit rules based on their standard operating procedures, and the system flags issues in real time before filing. A new classification tool simplifies the assignment of 10-digit Harmonized Tariff Schedule codes into a guided conversation, providing a recommended code in seconds along with U.S. Customs and Border Protection rulings and explanations in real time.

Additionally, Flexport has introduced air, rail, and barge routing to Atlas, its free map of global trade, allowing users to compare every mode between any two locations. The platform also features an AI-curated disruption layer that monitors news sources for events affecting shipments and provides per-container emissions estimates for ocean routes.

Flexport has opened its first fully automated e-commerce fulfillment center outside Chicago, utilizing over 350 robots to achieve double the efficiency of a traditional warehouse. The company has also expanded its offices to eight new countries, including Japan, France, Belgium, Cambodia, Brazil, the Philippines, Australia, and Indonesia, bringing the total to 47 offices worldwide.

The addition of Japanese and French AI-powered translation brings the platform to 11 supported languages. Flexport aims to allow companies to focus on developing products, building their brand, and connecting with customers, while its autonomous supply chain execution platform handles all the logistics.