// for freight forwarders and manufacturers
The quote form says “Additional details”.
The packing list has to travel separately.
For freight forwarders, and manufacturers whose quoting still runs on email: quote requests that arrive with what you need to price them, quotes drafted from your own rates for you to check, and paper forms your customers can fill in online.
Had an email from me? Just reply to it.
a quote request, start to finish
- The customer enters the jobroute, weights, dimensions, Incoterms; packing list or drawings attached
- It lands completeand the customer is told straight away when the quote will come
- The quote is draftedfrom your own rate sheet and rules, worked out in code
- You check it and send ityour price, your call
// on 16 UK forwarders' and manufacturers' sites, checked October 2026
Where a quote slows down.
The details arrive in pieces
On 8 of the 9 freight forwarders, the quote or enquiry form had no way to attach a file, so a packing list has to travel some other way, and the shipment goes into a box marked "Additional details".
No word on when the quote comes
9 of the 16 gave no turnaround for a quote; one says "We aim to reply to all enquiries as soon as possible". A customer asking three forwarders for a price can't tell which one to wait for.
Print, sign and return
3 of the 16 had a credit application or customer form as a PDF; one says "Please print & sign the document and return". The answers on it still have to get into your system.
// what I'd do
Start with the quote form.
-
first
A quote form that asks for what you price on
One quote request on your site with the fields your team asks for on the phone, file upload included. It tells the customer when to expect the quote and lands with you complete. One fixed price, agreed before I start.
-
then
Quotes drafted, paper gone
Quotes worked out from your own rate sheet and rules, ready for you to check, and the credit and customer forms moved online so nobody types them in again.
// what I've built
Systems where code decides and AI only writes it up.
- Many moving parts. One clock.A private system I built: live feeds land in one store, scheduled jobs wake on one clock, rules decide in code, and language models only put the results into words. Every job ends in a written outcome, including the ones that failed.see how it's built →
- AI tested against checks it never sees155 runs across four models, 23–24 September 2026: the AI said "done" over a failing check 0 times, and walked into a planted trap 0 times out of 31.read the method →
Freight and manufacturing are new for me: I haven't built for a firm like yours yet, so there's no case study here to show you. What's above is the same kind of work, and the first job is small and fixed so you can judge it before anything bigger.
Tell me what your team asks a customer before it can quote. I'll tell you on the call what I'd build first.
Had an email from me? Just reply to it.
Also on offer: custom software and automation · website rebuilds