After a competitive evaluation and pilots with multiple providers, the national managed logistics provider is integrating Qued's AI-powered Smart Appointments into its proprietary BlueShip® TMS — targeting fewer clicks per load, better appointment times, and improved transit.
BROADLANDS, Va., Sept. 2, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Qued, a leader in developing sophisticated, automated appointment scheduling solutions for supply chain and logistics companies, today announced a strategic partnership with BlueGrace Logistics, one of the nation's largest privately held managed logistics providers. BlueGrace is integrating Qued's Smart Appointments platform directly into its proprietary BlueShip® TMS to automate appointment scheduling across its Managed Logistics® and brokerage operations. The build is underway, with go-live targeted for the coming months.
The partnership is the product of a deliberate, multi-year sequence rather than a quick buy. Qued first approached BlueGrace shortly after the company was founded, but the timing wasn't right: BlueGrace needed to build the underlying technology framework required to support automated appointment scheduling at scale. BlueGrace built that foundation, and when appointment scheduling resurfaced as a top priority in the company's broader automation and AI roadmap, it returned to the market — evaluating and running pilots with multiple appointment scheduling providers before selecting Qued.
What drove appointment scheduling to the top of the list was data BlueGrace generated on itself. The company measured clicks within its own system to understand exactly what it takes to build a load, and manual appointment scheduling, across direct integrations, email, and phone calls, emerged as one of the largest time consumers that creates no differentiated value for a customer.
The second finding mattered just as much: the appointments being booked weren't always the best available ones. When scheduling waits on a person to get to it, the team takes whatever slot remains at a busy distribution center rather than the slot that actually serves the shipment. Automating the process is intended to secure better appointments more quickly, improving transit times and, over time, reducing costs.
Qued's platform uses machine learning to identify the best appointment slots in real time, based on ETAs, facility capacity, historical performance, and each location's specific requirements. It connects directly to the transportation management system that a 3PL already runs and works across every channel a facility may require: web portals, email, and AI-powered voice calls.
For BlueGrace, the value lands on both sides of the business:
- For customers, particularly the shippers who fully outsource transportation to BlueGrace Managed Logistics®, access to scheduling automation and better appointment times through a partner's tech stack is a capability many small and mid-sized shippers would not otherwise have.
- For employees, a shift away from hours of daily appointment booking toward exception handling and deeper relationships with customers and carriers.
"We measured how many clicks it takes to build a load, and manual appointment scheduling kept showing up as time that doesn't drive value. Somebody has to do it, but nobody gets paid more for doing it," said Raddy Velkov, Senior Vice President of Carrier Sales and Strategy at BlueGrace Logistics. "There's a second problem underneath it: when a person has to get to an appointment, whatever is left at the DC by then may not be a good appointment. Automating this gets us better appointments faster, which improves transit, and it puts our people on work that actually moves the business—exceptions, customers, carriers—instead of hours a day of scheduling. We looked at the market and piloted the field before we picked Qued."
"I've worked alongside the BlueGrace team for years, going back to integrating Trucker Tools into their operation, so I know how rigorously they evaluate technology," said Prasad Gollapalli, CEO of Qued. "When I first brought Qued to them, they told me straight: not yet, we have foundational work to do first. They did that work. They came back, held a real bake-off, and chose us. That's the kind of yes that means something."
"BlueGrace didn't go looking for a feature bolted onto something else. They went looking for a specialist, and they pressure-tested the field to find one," said Tom Curee, President of Qued. "Embedding into BlueShip® means every shipper BlueGrace serves gets the benefit without changing how they work. That's what appointment scheduling should be: solved, in the background, on a system the team already uses."
BlueGrace joins a growing roster of brokers, 3PLs, and asset-based carriers running on Qued, from family fleets to some of the largest logistics providers in North America.
About Qued:
Qued is a cloud-based, AI-powered smart workflow automation platform transforming load appointment scheduling for brokers, 3PLs, and carriers. By automating the scheduling process, Qued eliminates manual work, simplifies multi-stop load appointments, and ensures seamless coordination across the supply chain, improving both operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. For more information, visit www.qued.com or contact us at [email protected].
About BlueGrace Logistics:
BlueGrace Logistics is one of the nation's largest Managed Logistics providers, delivering customizable transportation management solutions that help shippers control freight spend through advanced technology and a broad network of trusted carriers. With offices strategically located in major transportation hubs across the U.S. and Mexico, including national headquarters in Tampa, BlueGrace serves over 10,000 customers annually through its proprietary technology platform, BlueShip, that has connectivity with more than 250,000 carrier suppliers. BlueGrace is part of the technology portfolio of Warburg Pincus, a leading global private equity firm. https://mybluegrace.com/
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SOURCE Qued
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