Solutions · Transport & logistics

Telegram bots for transport & logistics.

A point of access to information and operations, in conversation. This page places the mechanics of the service alongside the rules that apply in transport & logistics — without claiming a project we have not done.

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Starting point

What transport & logistics look like before any software

The dispatch desk of a transport company in the Republic of Moldova is, almost always, a telephone. The transport request comes by phone, by WhatsApp or by Viber, sometimes from an old client who writes two words and a city. Who answers depends on the time: the dispatcher during working hours, the owner in the evening, and in small firms even the driver, from the road, with the phone in the holder. There is no moment when the request “enters the system” — there is a moment when someone remembers it.

The data sit in three places that do not talk to each other. The first is required by law and is best kept: the registration sheet or tachograph card, because it is presented for inspection. The second is the trip table — a spreadsheet or a notebook, where the trip, driver, truck, client and price are written down. The third is accounting, which sees the same trip only a month later, as an invoice. The same trip has three different identities and no common identifier.

What is lost between them is always lost in the same place: at delivery confirmation. The signature on the waybill remains on the paper in the truck door until the driver returns to base; the photo of the unloaded goods remains in his phone gallery. When the client calls and asks “has it arrived?”, the dispatcher does not look in a system — he calls the driver. That is the real mechanism that any software replaces or, more often, duplicates.

The detail that the industry treats as a technical field and the law treats differently: the driver is a natural person. His phone number, the position of the truck he is driving, the hours when he drove and when he rested, his voice in a recorded call — all are his data. A fleet tracking system does not track trucks; it tracks people who are in trucks, and that changes what basis it needs and what must be said in advance.

International traffic adds a second set of rules on top of the first. A carrier from Moldova that loads for the European Union no longer works only under the national code: it falls under the AETR Agreement, and on EU territory under the European regulations on driving time and the tachograph. In practice, the same company keeps two regimes in parallel, and the IT system that does not know which route the trip is on cannot even say whether a driver still has hours available.

Channel, voice note, lead notification

Regulile

What applies in transport & logistics, with the article it comes from

Each rule below carries the normative act that imposes it. Verification does not require you to take our word for it.

Driving time has fixed figures, not a negotiation range

Daily driving time does not exceed 9 hours; it may be extended to at most 10 hours, but not more than twice a week. Weekly, at most 56 hours; over two consecutive weeks, at most 90. After 4 and a half hours of driving comes an uninterrupted break of at least 45 minutes, which may be split into 15 plus 30 minutes. The durations are cumulative regardless of the state through whose territory driving took place. Any planner that proposes a trip must know these thresholds, otherwise it proposes something illegal.

SourceRoad Transport Code No. 150/2014, art. 139 paras. (1)–(4) and art. 140 paras. (1)–(2)

Responsibility for exceedances lies with the company, including for what happened in another state

The undertaking organises the work of drivers so that they can comply, gives them instructions and carries out periodic checks. And — the part that is rarely read — it is liable for infringements committed by its drivers even if these were committed on the territory of a foreign state. The consequence for software: a system that only records exceedances after they have occurred helps no one; the value is in the warning before departure.

SourceCodul transporturilor rutiere nr. 150/2014, art. 143 alin. (1)–(3); pentru cursele sub regim european, Regulamentul (UE) nr. 165/2014, art. 33 alin. (3)

The vehicle’s position is a personal data item of the driver, not an attribute of the truck

The law defines the identifiable person by reference, among other things, to location data. And it defines profiling as automated processing used to analyse or predict aspects concerning performance at work or the place where the natural person is located — that is, exactly what a telematics system does. Three things follow from this: you need a basis, the driver must be informed, and, if the basis is legitimate interest, he has the right to object on personal grounds.

SourceLaw No. 195/2024, art. 4 (the notions of "personal data" and "profiling"), art. 6 para. (1) lit. f), art. 21 para. (1)

Tachograph data are processed exclusively for control purposes, not for any company purpose

Under the European regime, processing of tachograph data is carried out exclusively for checking compliance with driving time rules, and states must ensure that the data are protected against uses other than this purpose — explicitly listing recording of position by satellite navigation system and the records kept by the undertaking. Digital tachographs are designed so as to ensure privacy protection and only the necessary data are processed. A manager who exports tachograph data in order to make a driver ranking goes beyond the purpose for which they were provided.

SourceRegulamentul (UE) nr. 165/2014, art. 7 alin. (1)–(3)

There is an exact list of documents that must be on board

In national traffic, for paid goods transport: the certified copy of the road transport licence in original form, the waybill and the driver’s valid professional competence certificate. In international traffic, the CMR transport consignment note replaces the waybill, plus international authorisations where agreements require them. The list is closed and is checked on the road, which means digitalisation cannot replace the physical document, only prepare and track it.

SourceRoad Transport Code No. 150/2014, arts. 58 and 59; the CMR Convention, to which the Republic of Moldova acceded by Parliamentary Decision No. 1318-XII of 2 March 1993 (cited in art. 59 item b) of the code)

On an international route, AETR applies, not the title from the national code

The provisions of the AETR Agreement apply instead of the title on working time and rest when the transport operation is carried out partly outside the Republic of Moldova or the European Union, with vehicles registered in the EU or in a State Party to AETR — for the whole route — or, for vehicles from a non-party State, only for the part on the territory of the EU or the States Parties. A system that does not know where the trip is cannot know which regime applies to it.

SourceCodul transporturilor rutiere nr. 150/2014, art. 138 alin. (2)

Mecanica

What Telegram bots do, concretely

The same capabilities that appear on the service page, where each has its own file and back-end line.

First, we check what public door the system has

For WooCommerce stores, we use the public store API, which does not require a consumer key: the client connects only with the site address. It is a choice with real consequences, not just an aesthetic one — we replaced with it hand-written tools that kept store keys in clear text in the database. When the system has no public door, we move to authentication, but then the key becomes something to be managed, not something forgotten in a database row.

Keys stay on the server, not in the tool and not in the page

The SMS tool is internal to the platform precisely because the environment where a tool’s own code runs does not have access to environment variables — if sending were done from tool code, the key would have to be written to the database, and that key can send messages at everyone’s expense. The same with the scheduling system: the partner token is a single one, kept in the server environment, while the client only sets their company identifier.

The agent calls the tool during the conversation, with parameters and a deadline

Each tool has a description written for the model, typed parameters with what is required and what is not, and its own execution deadline — from 15 seconds for a list of services to 30 for an availability search. The deadline per tool is not a detail: without it, a slow integration blocks the conversation, and the person on the other end hears silence.

Real bookings in the salon or clinic system

Six tools over Altegio: the list of services with real prices, specialists, full availability, booking creation, cancellation and editing. Availability does not return only “free/busy”: it returns which specialists perform the requested service and the first free times for each, sorted by the earliest, precisely so the agent can propose a concrete alternative instead of saying “not available”.

The store catalogue, read live

Price and availability are read from the store at the time of the question, not from an outdated copy. The catalogue is loaded paginated, up to 30 pages of 100 products each, kept in a temporary ten-minute cache per site and normalised into a single form, read unchanged by all consumers — including the product carousel in messaging, which needs a numeric price, and the widget on the page, which needs a title.

CRMs, spreadsheets and messaging channels

amoCRM and Bitrix24 with full OAuth, token refresh and status verification. Google Sheets through a dedicated service account, separate from the rest of the credentials, with writing triggered by the agent. Telegram for lead notifications. SMS through Infobip. Plus the chat channel of a local classified ads platform, connected with its own refresh token — the kind of integration that does not exist in any international catalogue and that matters very much locally.

The service, in detail

The data

What every system in the industry addresses

The data classes held by transport and logistics, with the legal basis for retention kept where the law provides it.

Recording of working time and rest time (record sheets, tachograph card): Driving hours, breaks and rest periods for each crew member. When the vehicle does not yet have a tachograph, the record is kept in writing on the route sheet, with graphic symbols and an indication of driving and rest periods. These are data about a person, not about a vehicle: from them it can be reconstructed where they were and how long they worked.Keep: At least 12 consecutive months from the date of the last entry, in the text of the national code. Under the European regime, at least one year from use, with the obligation to give the driver copies on request.SourceCodul transporturilor rutiere nr. 150/2014, art. 144 alin. (1)–(3); Regulamentul (UE) nr. 165/2014, art. 33 alin. (2)
What the driver must be able to show on the road: For an analogue tachograph: the sheets from the current day and those used in the last 28 days, the driver card if they have one, plus any information recorded manually and any printed document from the same period. For a digital tachograph: their own card, manual information and printed documents from the current day and from the last 28 days. It is a rolling window, not an archive — and it is what a fleet system must be able to reproduce in presentable format.Keep: The current day plus the previous 28 days, as an obligation to appear for inspection.SourceRegulamentul (UE) nr. 165/2014, art. 36 alin. (1)–(2)
Location data from telematics: The vehicle's position, speed, stops, reconstructed route. These are personal data of the driver at the wheel during that interval, because they make them identifiable and describe where they were. If evaluations of the way they drive or of their performance are built from them, the processing becomes profiling, with everything that follows: information, legal basis, right to object.Keep: No specific term in transport legislation. It is set by the controller and justified by the storage limitation principle — the period may not exceed what is necessary for the purpose.SourceLaw No. 195/2024, art. 4 (the notions of "personal data" and "profiling"), art. 5 para. (1) lit. e), art. 21 para. (1); Regulation (EU) No. 165/2014, art. 7 para. (2) first indent
Driver and subcontractor contact data: The name, the phone number, sometimes the personal number. They are a person’s data, not a routing field. The practical distinction: the dispatcher’s number belongs to the company; the driver’s number belongs to the driver. A system that treats them the same will sooner or later end up dictating one person’s personal number to an unknown client over the phone.Keep: How long the employment relationship or contract lasts, plus what tax and archiving obligations require; there is no term in transport legislation.SourceLaw No. 195/2024, art. 4 (the notion of "personal data"), art. 5 para. (1) lit. c) and e)
The consignment note and the CMR: The transport document is not only commercial: it shows the sender, the recipient and the person signing on receipt, with the name and, often, the signature. When it is digitised — photo, scan, form — these data are digitised too, together with the place and time of unloading.Keep: No specific term in the code for retention by the controller; the document is kept on board for the duration of the route, and archiving follows accounting and contractual rules.SourceRoad Transport Code No. 150/2014, art. 58 item b) and art. 59 item b)
Dispatch call recordings: If calls to customers or drivers are recorded or transcribed, the voice recording, transcript, caller and called numbers, time and duration appear. A person's voice in an identifiable conversation is personal data. The fact that the interlocutor is speaking with an automated system and that the call is being recorded must be stated at the start of the call, in both directions — both to the customer and to the driver.Keep: It is set by the operator; there is no legal term in transport legislation. It is written in the published notice, not left to the programme’s default value.SourceLaw No. 195/2024, art. 12 para. (1) and art. 13 para. (1)–(2) (information at the time of collection), art. 5 para. (1) lit. e)

Limbajul

The words people there use

An agent that says “programming” where the industry says otherwise is immediately heard as foreign. That is why vocabulary goes into configuration, not into the glossary at the end.

Certified copy of the licence: The document kept in original form on board each vehicle; the licence belongs to the company, the certified copy belongs to the vehicle. A system that counts “licences” instead of certified copies is counting something other than what enforcement counts.
Consignment note / CMR: The document accompanying the goods. In domestic transport it is called a consignment note; in international transport, a CMR consignment note, after the convention of the same name. The signature at destination is proof of delivery.
Route sheet: The vehicle’s trip document. When the tachograph is missing, it is also used to keep written records of driving and rest periods.
Tachograph card: The driver’s personal card, on which their activity is recorded. It is linked to the person, not to the lorry — that is why the data on it belongs to them.
Cabotaj: Transport between two points within the territory of the same country, carried out by a foreign haulier. In the territory of the Republic of Moldova it is prohibited for foreign hauliers unless the agreements provide otherwise.
Road transport manager: The person in the company responsible, together with the drivers, for road safety. It is the role that answers the question “who signs off that it was checked”.
Empty trip / empty return: Movement without goods. It is not a legal term, it is the unit of measure of loss in a transport company — and the reason why a lost request in the evening costs twice as much.
Consignor, consignee, road transport operator: The three parties under the road code. The customer who calls may be any of them, and an assistant who confuses them asks the wrong address from the wrong person.

Where it breaks down

What goes wrong when transport & logistics are digitalised in a hurry

The fleet system installed before deciding who the data subject is

It is bought as equipment for vehicles, installed as infrastructure, and only when an employee first asks for it is it discovered that it produces data about people. Then all three things that should have been done beforehand are missing: the chosen and documented legal basis, the information given to drivers, and the retention period. Retrospective fixing is more expensive than installation.

The delivery status that exists only as a message

Confirmations go through messaging, so every confirmation is a photo and a text in a thread that belongs to a personal account. When the driver leaves the company, the history leaves with him. When the customer disputes the delivery, the proof is in a phone gallery. Digitalisation that only moves the thread from WhatsApp to another chat solves nothing — the problem is that the delivery has no status, not that it has the wrong chat.

A single hours regime for all journeys

The company calculates according to the national code and sends the lorry on a journey that falls under AETR, or vice versa. The result is not a reporting error, but a fine on the way and a journey stopped. A system that does not distinguish between routes is not neutral — it is a source of risk, because it gives an answer with an appearance of certainty.

Tachograph data reused as a management tool

They are at hand, they are accurate and they are tempting. As they are collected for the purpose of legal control, using them for rankings or bonuses is processing for another purpose, which must be assessed separately. In addition, the code explicitly prohibits remuneration based on distances travelled and the quantity transported if it is liable to affect road safety — so a system that rewards kilometres may produce exactly the behaviour the law discourages.

Automating communication to a number that is not the company’s

Automated notifications to the goods recipient reach a person who has no contract with you and who has given you nothing. Each such channel needs a legal basis and a way to stop it. When the messages also contain marketing, the direct marketing rule also applies, with the right to object that must be brought to attention clearly and separately, no later than the first communication.

Questions

What someone in transport & logistics asks before buying software

Can a system tell the customer where their goods are?

It can say exactly what the connected system knows, at the moment of the question. If the delivery status lives only in the driver’s head and on the paper in the door pocket, no assistant can read it — it can at most ask the driver and come back with the answer. The difference between the two architectures is the first decision to make, before any technology.

If the agent calls the driver, what should it tell them?

That they are speaking to an automated system, if it is recorded — that it is recorded, and for what purpose. The law requires the information to be given at the moment the data are obtained, in a concise, transparent and easily accessible form. The announcement enters the scenario, in both directions: the driver called by an agent has the right to know what they are speaking to just as much as the customer.

Can we track the fleet without the drivers’ consent?

Consent is not the only legal basis and, in an employment relationship, it is the most fragile, because it is assessed whether it was given freely. Most companies rely on legitimate interest. The price of this basis is that the driver may object on personal grounds, and the company must demonstrate legitimate and compelling reasons that prevail. This is prepared before installation, not after the first objection.

Can the driver’s number reach the customer?

Technically, yes — which is why the decision must be taken explicitly and enforced at system level, not through the dispatcher’s training. The minimisation required by law means that data are limited to what is necessary for the purpose: if the purpose is to find out where the parcel is, the driver’s personal number is not necessary for that.

Can a system help us not exceed driving time?

Only if it has the real data. The thresholds are fixed and can be calculated: 9 hours a day, 56 a week, 90 over two weeks, a break after 4 and a half hours. What cannot be calculated without a source is how many hours the person drove yesterday, and that source is the tachograph or the written record. A planner that receives the hours by hand will plan on incorrect data.

What happens to the data when the driver leaves the company?

The working time record remains, because it has its own term — at least 12 months from the last entry in the text of the code, at least one year under the European regime. The rest — contacts, positions, records — have no legal term, so the company must set it itself and be able to justify it through the principle of storage limitation. A system that does not have the field “until when” leaves that decision unwritten.

Does this also work for international trips?

The regime changes along the route. Across the border, AETR applies, and on the territory of the Union, the European rules apply. The consequence for any system: the trip needs a field that says under which regime it falls, otherwise the calculations of hours and document requirements are either too permissive or unnecessarily strict.

Can we use tachograph data to assess drivers?

Under the European regime, no — data from the tachograph are processed exclusively for the purpose of verifying compliance with driving time rules, and states must protect them against other uses. If you want staff evaluation, it needs its own source, its own legal basis and its own information notice, not an export from the control device.

Where do we start, if everything is on WhatsApp today?

From a single place where the request gets an identifier and a status. Not from the assistant. An assistant placed over a process without statuses will answer politely and will lose exactly the same requests the person loses, only faster.

What we cannot claimWe do not have integration with any tachograph, any tachograph card or any fleet telematics system — neither for reading hours nor for position. We do not have a connection with the National Road Transport Agency systems for licences or international authorisations, and we do not digitise the waybill or the CMR: we do not issue, sign or archive transport documents. We do not calculate tariffs and we do not do route optimisation. The voice part runs through a SIP host, and the host through which our test lines pass was not responding at the last check — so we do not give you a demonstration number that we could not bring up in front of you. What this dossier describes is the industry and the rule applied to it; what we have actually built is in the service sheets, with file and line.

The service, in detail What we actually built All scenarios

The service, appliedWe have not yet delivered exactly this combination. What you read above is the mechanism of our service, verifiable on its page, set alongside the rules that govern transport & logistics — each with the article it comes from. What we have actually built sits on the service page and in the portfolio.

Sources 13 sources · verified on 2026-09-07

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