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Briebug

Rescue case study · International express clearance and brokerage technology

FedEx: a legacy retirement and an EU customs launch competing for the same experts

International FedEx Express shipments are grouped under a Master Air Waybill (MAWB), the identifier customs agencies, carriers and brokers use to clear them. MAWBs were assigned inside VISA, a legacy clearance system FedEx was retiring, while other clearance programs ran at the same time.

8s to under 1sfor a key operations query, in initial testing

  • Java
  • Spring
  • JPA
  • Redis
  • Okta
  • Jenkins
  • SonarQube
  • Angular 17

The problem

  • MAWB creation and assignment had to move out of VISA into a new, standalone service.
  • The EU's new pre-arrival customs rules (ICS2) required shipment data at the piece level, on a regulatory timeline.
  • Reporting and reconciliation tools were slow and still tied to VISA, and every program competed for the same few engineers who knew the clearance domain.

What we found

  • When one program heated up, the others stalled.
  • MAWB logic was locked in the legacy system.
  • The EU customs launch had open defects and a broken test suite.
  • Operations queries took 8 seconds, and EU and non-EU logic were tangled together.

What we did

Ramped up fast

Five Briebug Java engineers started in August 2023 and joined FedEx architects and business owners for a three-day onsite workshop, leaving with the remaining work defined and a roadmap.

Built the replacement service

A new MAWB generator service took over from VISA: range management, create, assign and delete flows, multiple MAWBs per flight, and custom ranges, with Redis caching, Okta security, API docs, automated tests and Sonar quality gates from the start.

Moved to the deadline

When FedEx moved its own engineers onto the EU customs launch, Briebug followed: we worked the defects, rebuilt the broken test suite, and pushed a weekend production change to get the soft launch live.

Fixed what slowed operations

We optimized database queries from 8 seconds to under 1 second in initial testing, moved reporting out of VISA, added scan data feeds, and upgraded the Angular front end from 14 to 17.

Paid down legacy risk

We split EU-specific code into its own repository, removed unused rule sets, and took on a high-risk MAWB sub-project.

The result

  • FedEx did not have to choose which program to starve: Briebug carried the work that would otherwise have stopped.
  • A new MAWB generator service, with caching, security, tests and quality gates, to replace the legacy logic.
  • The EU customs soft launch reached production.
  • A key operations query went from 8 seconds to under 1 second in initial testing.
[CLIENT QUOTE: FedEx]
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