Freight forwarders on email: turn half-finished quote requests into complete ones

The real problem: incomplete requests

Pricing a shipment needs a handful of facts: what it is, how it is packed, the weight and dimensions, where it is collected and delivered, when it is ready and any special needs such as a tail-lift or hazardous goods. Customers rarely send all of them. The first reply is almost always a list of questions, and it often goes out hours later because whoever writes quotes is busy.

An AI agent can send that list within minutes, tailored to what is missing, so the customer fills the gaps while they are still at their desk. When the answers come back, the agent passes a tidy summary to your pricing team. The customer feels looked after, and your team prices from complete information instead of chasing it.

Status questions without guesses

"Where is my shipment?" is the other big category. The agent can only answer from information someone gives it. If your team keeps a shared status sheet, or your AI agent has its own access to your tracking tools, the agent can share the latest status in plain words. If not, it acknowledges the question, takes the reference and hands it to operations.

Either way, the rule is the same: the agent never guesses. A confident "it will arrive tomorrow" that turns out wrong does more harm than "operations will confirm by 3pm". Spaces does not connect to couriers or tracking systems, so any live tracking has to come through tools you set up for your agent yourself.

What customers ask on Email

• How much to send two pallets from Leeds to Lyon?
• Can you collect from our warehouse tomorrow morning?
• Where is shipment ref NG-4471? It was due yesterday.
• What documents do I need to export to Norway?
• Is this classed as dangerous goods? It's lithium batteries.
• Our delivery was damaged. How do I make a claim?
• Do you do temperature-controlled loads?

An example conversation

This illustration shows a vague quote request turned into a complete one in two emails. Names and details are examples.

What the agent answers

• Replying to every quote request with the exact details that are missing.
• Summarising complete requests for your pricing team in a consistent format.
• Explaining your services, the countries you cover and your standard collection times.
• Sharing your standard document checklist, such as a commercial invoice and packing list, from your note.
• Giving a shipment's latest status, but only from a status sheet or tool your team keeps up to date.
• Explaining how to report damage or a missing item, and collecting the details for the claim.

What it always hands to you

• Every price, surcharge and quote, which your pricing team sends.
• Customs questions beyond your standard checklist, including classification, duty and licences.
• Dangerous goods, temperature-controlled loads and anything that needs special handling.
• Delays, held shipments and anything a customer is waiting on urgently.
• Claims for damage or loss, once the agent has collected the details.
• Credit accounts, invoices and payment questions.

Give the agent a fixed list of quote details

The agent is only useful if it asks for the same details your pricing team needs, every time. Write the list in the note in the order your team prices from, and tell the agent to ask only for what is missing, in one email. When everything has arrived, have it hand over a short summary in the same order. Your team will start to trust the summaries quickly, because they always look the same.

The Email limits that matter here

A new chat here is a new email thread. A reply to an email that arrived in the last week is never held back by the daily limits. Spaces sends one email at a time to one person, never bulk email.

Set it up in an afternoon

1. Write a freight note: your services and coverage, the list of quote details, your standard document checklist, your claims process, who owns pricing, operations and claims, and the topics that always go to a person. There is an example below.
2. Connect the mailbox customers use for quotes and bookings in Spaces. You sign in to Gmail or Outlook through a secure link and approve the connection, or enter your mail server details for any other mailbox. If quotes and operations use different addresses, connect each one and give the agent a note for each.
3. Connect your AI agent using the steps on our agents page. Chat apps such as Claude or ChatGPT reply when you ask them in a chat, so for replies through the day without you asking, use an always-on agent such as Claude Code, Codex, OpenClaw or Hermes. Give it the freight note. Spaces does not connect to couriers, tracking or transport management systems. If you want the agent to read live statuses, your AI agent needs its own access to those tools, or your team keeps a status sheet it can read.
4. Agree response times for handed-over emails, such as quotes by 4pm for requests completed before noon, and give the agent the same wording so it promises only what the team can deliver.
5. Decide when the agent answers. Many firms let it reply through the working day and into the evening, when customers often send next-day requests. Tell it in its notes, or pause sending when you want everything to wait.
6. Ask your AI agent to hold replies as drafts for the first week or two, and nothing goes out until you approve it. Read each draft, fix the wording you would never use and add the fixes to the note. Once the drafts need almost no changes, let the routine replies go out on their own and keep drafts for anything sensitive.
7. After a month, compare how long quotes took before and after. The time saved is usually in the first reply, which is now instant.

A sample freight note

Keep it practical and in the order your team works. Here is the shape of one, with example details.

FIRM: Northern Freight Services. UK and EU road freight, pallets and
part loads. Office Mon to Fri 7:30 to 18:00.

QUOTE DETAILS (ask only for what is missing, in one email):
1. Collection postcode  2. Delivery town and postcode  3. Goods
4. Number of pallets or packages  5. Weight and dimensions each
6. Ready date  7. Tail-lift or booking-in needed  8. Hazardous? Y/N
When complete: summarise in this order and hand to Anna (pricing).
Tell the customer: quotes by 16:00 for requests complete by 12:00.

DOCUMENTS (standard exports): commercial invoice, packing list,
exporter's EORI number. Anything else, or any customs question: hand
to Anna. Never say whether goods need a licence or what duty is.

STATUS: answer only from the status sheet. If not on it: "Operations
will confirm by [time]" and hand to Ben.

CLAIMS: ask for the reference, photos and a description. Hand to Ben.
NEVER: quote prices, promise delivery dates, accept liability.

A second example: a delayed shipment

Status emails are where tone matters most, because the customer is usually already worried. Names and details are examples.

The agent shared what the status sheet said and nothing more, apologised for the worry without admitting fault and set a clear time for a person to reply. It did not guess why the shipment was late.

What if the customer wants a price straight away?

Some customers will push: "just give me a rough figure". The agent should not. Freight prices depend on fuel, routes, capacity and the details of the load, and a rough figure from an AI agent becomes the number the customer holds you to. Give it wording that explains why, kindly: "I'd rather our pricing team gave you an accurate figure than a guess. With the details you've sent, they'll have it to you by 4pm."

If you do publish fixed prices for simple services, such as a standard pallet within the UK, you can put those in the note and let the agent share them. Keep anything else with the pricing team.

Common mistakes freight firms make

• Letting the agent give "rough" prices that customers then treat as quotes.
• Allowing it to answer customs questions beyond your standard checklist.
• Giving it an out-of-date status sheet, so it shares old information with confidence.
• Asking for missing details one at a time across several emails instead of all at once.
• Using the agent to send a rate change to every customer. Send announcements from your email marketing tool and let the agent answer the replies.

Who you message

In short

For a freight forwarder or courier, an AI agent on email speeds up the slowest part of quoting: getting complete details. It asks for everything missing in one friendly email, summarises complete requests for your pricing team, shares your standard document checklist and gives status updates only from information your team keeps current.

Prices, customs advice, delays and claims stay with people. Spaces paces every email from your own mailbox and keeps it inside safe limits, and your team spends its time pricing and moving freight instead of chasing postcodes.

Pricing

Plans from $19 a month

Can the agent give customers a price?

Only if you have published fixed prices and put them in the note. For everything else, the agent collects the details and your pricing team sends the quote. A guessed figure tends to become the price a customer expects.

Can it track shipments?

Spaces does not connect to couriers or tracking systems. The agent can share statuses from a sheet your team keeps up to date, or from tracking tools your AI agent has its own access to, if you set that up.

Will it give customs advice?

It shares your standard document checklist and nothing more. Classification, duty, licences and anything unusual go to a person, because a wrong answer can hold a shipment at the border.

What happens with dangerous goods enquiries?

They always go to a person. The agent can ask for the safety data sheet and the details your team needs, but it should never say whether goods count as dangerous or how to ship them.

Can it read the documents customers attach?

Spaces lets the agent list and download attachments, so an agent that can read files can see a packing list or a photo. It still hands quotes and customs questions to your team rather than deciding from a document.

How fast will customers hear back?

Replies to emails customers send are not held back by the daily limits, so the first reply usually goes within minutes, paced so emails never go out in bursts. How fast a quote follows depends on your team, so give the agent the response times you can keep.

Can it chase customers who did not reply to a quote?

It can send a single, polite follow-up email to one person, written for them, inside Spaces' limits on new emails. Keep it to customers who asked for a quote, and stop when they say no.

Should it say it is an AI agent?

Yes. A short line in the signature, saying that an AI agent handles first replies and the team sends every quote, keeps things clear for customers and for your team.