The FourKites Knowledge Center

Dock scheduling is the process of assigning inbound and outbound shipments to specific dock doors at specific times, coordinating carrier arrivals with facility labor, equipment availability, and dock capacity to maximize throughput and minimize wait times.

A carrier scorecard is a structured performance evaluation of a transportation carrier across defined metrics (on-time delivery, transit time consistency, claims rate, responsiveness, tracking compliance) typically used in quarterly business reviews and contract negotiations.

AI hallucination in an operational context is when an AI system generates output that appears plausible but is factually incorrect, fabricated, or inconsistent with the actual state of the supply chain, potentially causing agents to take actions based on false information.

Supply chain sustainability encompasses the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices applied to supply chain operations, including carbon emissions measurement, fuel efficiency optimization, modal shift to lower-emission options, supplier ESG scoring, and regulatory reporting (Scope 3 emissions, CSRD).

Accessorial charges are additional fees beyond the base freight rate that carriers charge for services or conditions beyond standard pickup-to-delivery transport, including detention, liftgate, residential delivery, inside delivery, hazmat handling, reefer fuel surcharges, and re-delivery attempts.

An Advance Shipping Notice (ASN) is an electronic notification sent from a shipper or supplier to a receiver before a shipment arrives, containing details about the contents (SKUs, quantities, lot numbers), the carrier, and the expected arrival time.

Multi-agent orchestration is the coordination of multiple AI agents working together on a connected task, where one agent's output triggers another agent's action, enabling end-to-end autonomous execution across supply chain functions without human coordination between steps.

AI agent memory is the ability of an AI agent to retain and apply knowledge from prior interactions, decisions, and outcomes across conversations and sessions, enabling the agent to reference past context and improve its decision-making over time.

llms.txt is a proposed convention for websites to provide a machine-readable index of their content specifically designed for large language model consumption, similar to how robots.txt guides search engine crawlers and sitemap.xml lists pages for indexing.

AI Agent TAM (Total Addressable Market) refers to the estimated market size for AI agents that perform enterprise operational work, projected at $4.6 trillion by leading venture firms based on the assumption that AI agents will eventually perform most routine knowledge work currently done by human workers.

EDI 214 (Transportation Carrier Shipment Status Message) and EDI 990 (Response to a Load Tender) are standard electronic data interchange formats used for carrier-shipper communication. EDI 214 transmits shipment status updates (picked up, in transit, delivered). EDI 990 transmits carrier acceptance or rejection of a load tender.

AI-native means the platform was architecturally designed from the ground up for AI execution (data models built for agent consumption, intelligence layers built for real-time reasoning, audit trails built for decision capture). AI-enabled means AI features were added to an existing platform architecture that was originally designed for human users.

Cold chain management is the maintenance of a continuous temperature-controlled environment for perishable or temperature-sensitive products throughout the supply chain, from production through storage, transport, and delivery, with monitoring at every stage to prevent spoilage, degradation, or regulatory non-compliance.