How a New Jersey 3PL Owner Saved 40 Hours a Week With AI

By rebuilding my logistics company's software around AI in 2026, I got back at least 40 hours a week and cut thousands of dollars in software costs.

I'm Sam Fihma, cofounder of Fihma Advisory, and before we started helping other businesses put AI to work, I did it for my own. This is the story of how Pez Logistics, a third party logistics (3PL) company in New Jersey, went from disconnected systems and endless clicks to one integrated operation that runs through AI.

The business before AI

I started Pez Logistics in April 2023. Today we have 10 employees, and like most small business owners, I wear every hat: sales, quoting, billing, finance and operations.

Most weeks, I spent hours helping my team get things done, both on the warehouse floor and on the administrative side. The biggest problem was that none of my systems talked to each other:

• Outlook, where customers and prospects reach us
• QuickBooks, where the books live
• Our transportation management system (TMS), for freight
• Our warehouse management system (WMS), for inventory and orders

Every task meant jumping between tools, retyping the same information and double checking for mistakes.

The turning point

In early 2026, with how fast AI coding tools were changing, I decided to see how much more efficient I could make my operations. Instead of buying more off the shelf software, I started building tools around exactly how Pez works, using AI to write and maintain the code.

Step one: building our own warehouse management system

The single biggest change I made was replacing our WMS with one I built myself. We had been using one of the largest WMS providers in the country. It was powerful, but it was built for much bigger operations, and for a business our size it was clunky and hard to use.

So I rebuilt it from the ground up, tailored to our warehouse, our customers and our processes. The results:

• $14,000 a year saved in software fees
• Fully connected to Outlook, billing, QuickBooks and our AI tools
• Easier for my team, who are now faster and more accurate
• Far fewer errors on the warehouse floor and in billing

Step two: getting every system to talk to each other

Next, I built what I call the Business Hub. It's a custom connector (technically an MCP server) that links my email inboxes, QuickBooks, the WMS and the TMS, and lets all of it run through Claude, the AI assistant I use every day.

Now I can ask one place a question and get an answer that pulls from every system at once, without logging into four different tools.

I also replaced Slack with our own internal messaging app, saving about $1,000 a year and keeping team communication connected to everything else.

Step three: automating sales and quoting

With everything connected, I put AI to work on growing the business:

• Automated customer follow ups flag customers and prospects who need a touch, so nobody falls through the cracks.
• An outbound prospecting agent finds companies that need warehousing or trucking and helps me reach them faster.
• Quoting agents know all of our pricing across the business, so I can turn around a quote or a rate card for a new customer in minutes.

Step four: cleaner books and real time financials

Because QuickBooks is now integrated with everything, our books are more accurate and much easier to keep. My bookkeeper works fewer hours, so I pay less for bookkeeping.

On top of that:

• A daily cash flow email shows me exactly where the business stands every morning.
• Financial dashboards give me a live view of everything happening in the finances of the business.

The results

What changed	Result
Time saved	At least 40 hours a week
WMS software cost	$14,000 a year saved
Messaging software cost	About $1,000 a year saved
Bookkeeping	Fewer billable hours
Customer response time	Faster replies to customers and prospects
Accuracy	Far fewer errors

Those 40 hours didn't disappear. They went back into talking with customers, chasing new leads and having a life outside work: cooking, working out and training for (and running) a marathon.

It wasn't perfect

There were plenty of bumps. The new WMS had its share of bugs, and we found them the way you always do: in the middle of a real workday. The difference was speed. With AI, once we spotted an error, we could fix it ourselves quickly instead of waiting on a software vendor.

What this means for your business

If you run a logistics company, or really any small business, you probably already have software in place. But it likely wasn't built for your operation. It's hard to use, it takes too many clicks, and it doesn't connect to your other tools.

AI changes that. It can cut out the clicks, connect your systems and shape your tools around how you actually work. And you don't need to be technical to get there. That's the part we handle.

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