MEDIACO VRAC is accelerating its customs transformation with CONEX: from SaaS to operational AI
A recognised leader in transit, customs clearance and international logistics, the MEDIACO VRAC Group is taking a further step forward in the modernisation of its customs operations.
Following the adoption of the CUSTOMS via conex™ SaaS solution in January 2023 across all its entities, the group is now rolling out the ZEN via conex™ collaborative customs platform and the ALBA artificial intelligence module for classification assistance, to address increasingly complex regulatory and operational challenges.
A foundational technological framework to support developments in customs procedures
With 21 customs declarants spread across three main sites (Marseille, Fos-sur-Mer and Le Havre) and a total of six entities, MEDIACO VRAC relies on CONEX’s solutions to manage all its operations. The move to SaaS in 2023 was a key driver in supporting the transition to Delta IE, by securing data flows and facilitating adaptation to new regulatory requirements.
“Choosing CONEX has enabled us to anticipate major changes in customs procedures, particularly with Delta IE. Today, we have a stable, reliable and fully operational environment,” explains Mikael Guillaumaux, Customs Lead at the MEDIACO VRAC Group.
ZEN: a practical response to the complexity of excise duties
In October 2025, MEDIACO VRAC launched a new pilot project centred on the ZEN platform, rolled out across the Mediaco Logistique Normandie division (Le Havre and Fos-sur-Mer), with a focus on excise goods movements, which account for a significant proportion of the business.
ZEN via conex™ is a collaborative work platform. It enables the team of customs declarants to communicate with customers, and to centralise, track and archive all the information required for the customs process. With its intelligent assistant dedicated to document processing, data management is streamlined. From within documents, the tool identifies the data relevant to customs declarations, digitises it, analyses it and structures it so that it can be integrated directly into the customs clearance solution, exactly where declarants need it.
For example, 10,600 pages of documentation were processed in March 2026 for the 1,200 monthly declarations at the Fos branch alone. The automation of data entry tasks represents a significant time saving in a particularly complex regulatory environment, characterised by successive changes.[1]
“With ZEN and CONEX’s AI-based tools, we were able to cope with a very stringent regulatory change regarding excise duties. The tool enables us to process large volumes of documentation whilst ensuring that declarations are in line with the EAD. Without this type of AI, it would have been an extremely time-consuming and complex process,” underlines Mikael Guillaumaux, Customs lead for the MEDIACO VRAC group.
Beyond boosting productivity, ZEN enables the declarant to refocus on his/her core business: regulatory analysis and risk management.
ALBA: expert support for atypical workflows
At the same time, MEDIACO VRAC relies on ALBA, the tariff classification chatbot developed by CONEX, for its most unusual operations.
Integrated at the heart of the CONEX customs clearance solution, ALBA is an expert assistant that the declarant can call upon at any time, directly from their workstation. Through a natural dialogue combining text, photos and documents, the agent analyses the information, asks questions to clarify its understanding, cross-checks against regulatory sources and suggests the most appropriate classification.
Particularly useful for non-recurring shipments of ‘general cargo’ and ‘spot’ projects, ALBA helps to ensure accurate classifications.
‘For atypical or non-standard cases, ALBA provides us with speed and reassurance. This enables declarants to make more reliable nomenclature choices whilst saving time,’ explains Mikael Guillaumaux.
Designed as an integrated business assistant, ALBA achieves a high level of reliability thanks to its regulatory foundation, which is continuously updated.
“Tariff classification is one of the most sensitive aspects of customs clearance. An error can have significant financial, regulatory or operational consequences. With ALBA, we provide declarants with an expert assistant capable of analysing the available information, cross-referencing regulatory guidelines and proposing a well-reasoned classification within a matter of minutes,” says Cédric Pillac, Sales Deputy Managing Director at CONEX. “Initial feedback from the field shows that it is possible to reduce the time spent on classification by two-thirds, whilst achieving over 95 per cent accuracy and reducing customs risk by up to 80 per cent.”
A gradual transformation across the group
The deployment of ZEN and ALBA is being carried out in stages, with a project-based approach initially implemented at the Fos-sur-Mer site before being rolled out across the entire group.
The aim is to:
- standardise practices,
- reduce low-value-added tasks,
- and enhance the robustness of customs processes.
“Our aim is to expand these tools across all our entities to improve efficiency and quality. In particular, CONEX’s AI building blocks are becoming essential tools for tackling the growing complexity of our business,” concludes Mikael Guillaumaux.
About MEDIACO VRAC
MEDIACO VRAC is the logistics arm of the Mediaco Group (the leading lifting services provider – €500 million in turnover). MEDIACO VRAC owns over 250,000 m² of warehouse space close to ports. Specialising in transit, project logistics, customs clearance and international transport, MEDIACO VRAC supports its customers with a wide range of cargo flows, particularly excise goods, regulated products and complex operations. With a multi-site organisation – including some temperature-controlled facilities – and strategic locations in Marseille, Fos-sur-Mer and Le Havre, the group draws on recognised expertise in managing port and industrial logistics flows, which are often complex and subject to regulation. With most of its entities certified as Authorised Economic Operators (AEOs), MEDIACO VRAC guarantees its customers secure, streamlined customs procedures that comply with European safety and security requirements. For more information: www.mediacovrac.com
[1] In February 2026, the postponement of the interconnection between GAMMA2 and DELTA IE for the Export module drastically increased the complexity of processing excise duty movements, necessitating a manual, line-by-line reconciliation between the EAD, the commercial invoice and the customs declaration. Processing times increased twentyfold. CONEX then proposed a contextual analysis AI tool capable of automating this reconciliation process.
Agence C3M
Michelle Amiard, michelle@agence-c3M.com