U.S. Customs and Border Protection processes more than 3 million shipments per day, each one requiring multiple documents to clear authorities. At the end of 2025, NBC reported that thousands of U.S.-bound UPS packages were stuck in hubs because they didn’t meet the new customs and duties requirements set by the Trump administration.

Shipment rules are in a state of flux, which manual paperwork is ill-equipped to keep place with. If even one document is missing or incorrectly filled out, it can result in shipments being significantly delayed. To avoid these issues, it’s vital that businesses understand where and how manual paperwork causes delays, and the broader operational consequences. 

With a few simple strategies, it’s possible to digitize paperwork and keep shipment documents moving as quickly as the shipments themselves.

Sending a form digitally isn’t the same as making it completable. A flat PDF still gets printed, filled in by hand, scanned and uploaded, and each of those steps is somewhere a single keying error can restart the cycle. Most shipping paperwork is standard enough that this is a one-time fix. A logistics team can remove the loop for a whole document class in an afternoon by building a fillable PDF from the form already in use, so the data is captured at source and stays machine-readable. These are the micro costs of manual paperwork, and they add up.

Even before a shipment leaves, employees might use manual paperwork to transfer order details. Incomplete or incorrect information can very quickly delay a shipment being released. Following are some of the key stages of a shipment where manual paperwork can introduce delays:

• Carrier handoffs. If information is exchanged between shippers, freight forwarders and other shipment partners via manual paperwork, it’s easy for documents to get lost. It also makes it difficult to correct outdated information in a timely manner.
• Customs. International shipments with missing or inconsistent documents can easily lead to additional checks or shipments being halted.
• Proof of delivery. There’s always a document exchanged at the point of delivery to prove that a shipment has been delivered as such. If that document has to be signed and uploaded manually, it delays final confirmation and, in turn, can slow final invoicing in some instances.

A major area of contention in ocean trade is that the bill of lading is still frequently exchanged as a physical document. According to McKinsey, if this critical document were digitized, it could generate $6.5 billion in annual cost savings and provide a major boost to global trade.

What this one example indicates is how far-reaching the implications of manual documents can be. They cost far more in time and resources than businesses often realize, and the delays they can cause have real consequences.

On the other hand, digitization has been shown to have extensive operational benefits. One of them is improving supply chain resilience. Manual documents often slow things down, but digitization doesn’t just speed things up by cutting the need for printing, scanning, and manually correcting information. It also allows for centralized data storage that can then feed into extensive supply chain automation technologies and support systems.

How supply chains record and exchange shipment information is a crucial part of how quickly shipments can clear authorities and how accurately those shipments are tracked.

Following are five strategies that supply chains can enact to keep documents moving and avoid paperwork-related delays:

Digitize shipment documentation: Even just shifting manual documents to become fillable PDFs can cut a number of unnecessary processing delays and reduce the risk of losing paperwork. Digitization also makes it much easier to retrieve documents when a customer or customs authority requests them. This isn’t just because they’re available from the cloud or a device, but because they’re more easily searchable.

Standardize document workflow. Different shipping partners and authorities will have different documentation requirements. A standardized digital workflow can help streamline this significantly by defining what information is required by each partner, who is responsible for providing it, who has to approve it, and who it has to be sent to. Using a standard document format is also important in this.

Automate data entry. Automation is that much more possible when documents are digitized. Automating data entry, especially on standard documents, can speed up paperwork processing and greatly reduce delays as a result.

Automate validation. A major issue with supply chain documents is how frequently information is input incorrectly or left off entirely. It’s why document validation matters so much. Automating that validation is the next step in reducing the risk of manual errors and in speeding up how quickly paperwork can reach its intended destination.

Create a centralized source of information. When shipment information is scattered on multiple documents, it’s easy for something to get missed. A centralized source of information directly solves this issue by ensuring that there’s always one place where employees or automated systems can return to ensure accuracy across all paperwork. It’s also more doable when that centralized document is digitized.

The above strategies aim to fundamentally improve how information is shared and stored during shipments. As shipping volumes increase and global trade requirements grow more complex, this becomes even more significant.

Addressing manual paperwork is as much a means of improving administrative inefficiencies as it is a way to increase supply chain resilience. Digitization provides greater speed and adaptability, both of which benefit businesses navigating the current trade climate.

Emily Shaw is the founder of DocFly.