Quadrupling productivity at Discordia

Discordia is one of the top 20 transport and logistics companies in Europe. With 2,400+ employees and a fleet of over 1,500 trucks, it offers international road transport plus rail, sea and air freight forwarding, working with more than 70 countries.

Discordia, operating over 2,000 drivers across 70+ countries, faced mounting challenges. Monthly processing of 25,000+ expense notes required manual entry into their ERP system. Receipts arrived late, damaged, or in foreign languages, slowing reconciliation and increasing errors. Drivers relied on personal cards, creating delays, bank charges, and limited spending oversight. Emergency fund access during trips remained slow and disruptive.

Buying goods on the road was just as cumbersome. To request a purchase, a driver had to call Discordia's helpdesk and describe what they needed. The helpdesk then logged a ticket and routed it to an approval team, and every handoff added delay. People often weren't sure who should approve a given request, so misrouted requests and long waits were common.

Discordia implemented Payhawk to digitize and automate expense management company-wide. Drivers now use corporate cards and mobile apps for instant expense capture, eliminating paperwork. Finance teams no longer manually input data: expenses automatically process and sync with their ERP, removing errors and saving time. Pre-issued cards equip new or replacement drivers instantly.

Discordia then extended Payhawk to procurement, just as Payhawk launched its new AI Procurement Agent. The agent makes approvals and fund top-ups fast and intuitive, while keeping finance firmly in control.

Drivers now request additional funds by sending a single message in a chat. Payhawk's AI procurement agent turns each message into a complete request and sends it straight to the right approver. A predefined approval matrix applies the right spend policies automatically. The agent guides drivers step by step and understands them in their own language, which is essential for a multinational team on the road.

Manual expense processing has been fully eliminated, with productivity increasing fourfold. Drivers no longer use personal funds or complete manual reports. They pay with company cards and upload receipts via the app. This saves time and improves driver satisfaction while reducing financial stress on the road. Finance teams now have real-time spend visibility, enabling stronger control and better cost management.

Procurement has sped up just as dramatically. Since launch, Discordia has handled over 7,000 purchase requests through the agent, around 660 a week. More than two-thirds are approved within 32 minutes of submission, twice as fast as before, and the approval matrix has practically eliminated routing errors. Over €350,000 in requests passes through the system each month. Around two-thirds of expenses are matched to their request automatically, with no manual intervention.

Adoption was fast too. Because the agent feels like an ordinary chat rather than a complex system, drivers embraced it almost immediately, regardless of their technical background or language.