23.5.2026 | Technology

Container logistics operations are under increasing pressure.

Rising costs, fragmented planning, empty mileage, delayed vessels and growing intermodal complexity continue to place increasing strain on operators across the UK supply chain.

Despite significant investment in transport systems and visibility platforms, many transport offices still spend their days reacting to disruption rather than optimising utilisation, recovering plans quickly or improving execution across the supply chain.

For Ash Karia, those frustrations became impossible to ignore.

After more than 25 years in container logistics – spanning traffic planning, VBS booking, and co-founding and scaling ATL Haulage Contractors – Ash believes the industry still lacks something critical: intelligence that helps transport teams make better decisions as the day evolves.

That thinking led to IntelliLog, an AI-assisted platform that helps you make smarter decisions across your container logistics operations. IntelliLog helps you improve asset efficiency, reduce inefficient mileage, support better routing decisions, and speed recovery from disruptions, strengthening profitability, reducing waste, and lowering avoidable carbon emissions.

In this Q&A with Porttalk, Ash discusses the frustrations that inspired IntelliLog, why the industry still struggles with fragmentation, and how smarter coordination could reshape container logistics.

What led you to create IntelliLog? Was there a specific frustration or industry gap that made you feel change was necessary?

I’ve spent more than 25 years in container logistics, starting in traffic planning and operations before co-founding ATL Haulage Contractors and helping to scale the business nationally. Over that time, I’ve experienced first-hand how difficult it can be to coordinate container movements efficiently, particularly as businesses become larger and more fragmented.

The industry faces constant pressure – vessel delays, missed slots, empty mileage, shifting customer requirements, off-dock storage challenges, and difficulty recovering plans quickly when disruptions occur. Many businesses still rely heavily on manual intervention, disconnected communication and reactive decision-making.

IntelliLog came from those frustrations. I built a tool to assist planners by helping them identify better routing opportunities, reduce wasted mileage, improve asset efficiency, lower unnecessary fuel consumption, and respond more effectively to changing circumstances.

The goal was never to replace operators or existing systems. It was to create an intelligent layer that works alongside transport platforms, giving planners and transport teams better visibility and stronger decision support.

IntelliLog sits on top of existing operational systems rather than replacing them.

One of the key priorities was ensuring IntelliLog could integrate with transport platforms rather than forcing businesses into a costly and disruptive system replacement.

How does IntelliLog differ from a traditional Transport Management System or a freight marketplace?

IntelliLog isn’t a Transport Management System, nor is it a freight marketplace.

Most TMS platforms are designed to manage workflows, administration and transactions. IntelliLog sits alongside existing systems and focuses specifically on live intelligence, optimisation and coordination.

The platform is not designed as a spot freight exchange or rate-bidding marketplace. We focus on fixed-price network optimisation, improved asset efficiency, and smarter alignment with trusted logistics partners, rather than transactional load trading.

The platform extracts traffic-planning data and analyses network conditions. It identifies routing and utilisation opportunities that may otherwise be missed – reducing empty running, easing planning pressure, and accelerating recovery from disruption.

For example, IntelliLog can dynamically identify tip-and-reload opportunities, multi-function trailer optimisation, splitter planning, 2x20ft opportunities, recovery options, routing efficiencies and alternative solutions during disruption.

If vessel schedules change, rail timings shift, or collections run late, the system continuously reassesses the wider plan, allowing transport teams to recover more quickly, reduce knock-on disruption, and maintain efficiency across road, rail, and storage activities.

It’s about enabling smarter alignment across container logistics operations rather than replacing the systems businesses already use.

Many businesses are discussing AI in logistics right now. What role do you believe AI should realistically play in container operations?

AI should support operational teams rather than replace them.

Container logistics remains a people-driven industry, and experience is still crucial. AI can help planners process moving operational data more quickly, identify patterns, highlight opportunities and support better decision-making under pressure.

Transport offices today are managing huge volumes of data and constant change. IntelliLog helps reduce some of that pressure by continuously analysing network conditions and helping planners identify the most efficient way to manage the day as situations evolve.

For me, AI has value only if it improves execution in the real world. That means reducing inefficient mileage, improving asset and trailer efficiency, lowering unnecessary fuel consumption, reducing avoidable carbon emissions and strengthening profitability per movement.

Sustainability is becoming an increasingly important priority across the industry, particularly for shipping lines, retailers and larger logistics groups. Better asset efficiency and fewer wasted movements don’t just improve performance — they also create measurable environmental benefits across container logistics operations.

What is the longer-term vision for IntelliLog?

The long-term vision is to create a real-time intelligence and optimisation platform for container logistics.

The industry already has significant capacity, infrastructure and expertise. The challenge is often how efficiently those moving parts work together under live operating conditions.

IntelliLog is designed to help businesses make better use of available capacity across the supply chain — reducing wasted miles, lowering unnecessary fuel burn, improving asset efficiency, and enabling more dynamic decision-making across connected systems and logistics partners.

The platform also supports off-dock visibility, storage coordination, and evacuation planning, helping operators reduce unnecessary exposure to quay rent and improve overall supply chain efficiency beyond the port gate.

In the long term, the vision goes beyond port-to-port coordination to include warehouse planning, final-mile visibility, and intermodal alignment across road, rail, and storage operations.

We’re initially focused on the UK market, but the platform has been designed with wider global container logistics operations in mind.

Our goal is simple: to help the industry make better use of the capacity, infrastructure, and expertise already in the supply chain, strengthening decision-making rather than replacing the knowledge and experience within the transport office.