What this app does for Modal

A 5-minute, no-tech-jargon overview for anyone at Modal who's heard about "the email parser" and wants to understand what it actually does.

The problem it solves

Modal gets transport requests by email all day. Each one needs to be:

1. Read (sometimes from messy emails with attachments and forwarded chains)
2. Picked apart into structured data — pickup address, delivery, time, cargo type, special handling
3. Booked as an order in OnTime360 (Modal's dispatch system)
4. Confirmed back to the requester

Done by hand, that's 5–15 minutes per request. With dozens of requests a day, that's a meaningful chunk of someone's time spent retyping things — when the email already has the answer.

What this app does

The app reads incoming emails and the public web form, automatically extracts the structured details (using a Claude LLM model — same family as ChatGPT but tuned for accuracy on this kind of task), and lines them up for review by Troy in dispatch.

For most requests, Troy just glances, confirms the parsed details look right, and clicks Approve — and the system creates the OnTime360 order and sends a confirmation email back to the requester. No retyping.

For trusted regulars, the system can even auto-confirm without Troy clicking — it sends the confirmation reply itself if the parsed details look clean.

What it does NOT do

• It doesn't make routing decisions — Troy still owns dispatch judgment
• It doesn't price things — pricing comes from existing OnTime360 PriceSets
• It doesn't auto-cancel or auto-modify orders — only auto-creates from clean inputs
• It doesn't replace a human in the loop for new vendors or unusual requests

What changes for non-dispatch staff

Probably nothing visible. Confirmations to vendors look the same as before. Order numbers in OnTime360 look the same. Billing flows the same way.

The differences you might notice:

• Faster turnaround on routine vendor requests — auto-confirmation can mean "they sent the email, we replied 90 seconds later, the order is in OnTime360"
• Cleaner inbox for Troy — emails that aren't transport requests (banks, marketing, system mail) get filtered out before he sees them
• Searchable history — every email Modal has received via dispatch is logged with its parsed details, and customer-service can look up "what happened with that pickup last Tuesday" with a search query instead of forwarding through dispatch

Where to look for what

Who runs this

• Dispatch operations: Modal's own team (Troy in particular) is the human in the loop
• System administration: ProperTech engineers (Ethan + team) maintain the software, tune the parser, handle deploys, and respond if something breaks
• OnTime360 integration: configured by ProperTech against Modal's existing OT360 tenant

Tell me more

• How an email becomes an OnTime360 order
• Glossary