For independent freight forwarders
Do your quotes go out the same day, or the next morning?
In a forwarder, the quote is the sale. Every hour it sits in someone's inbox, a shipper is asking the next forwarder on the list.
Fixed fee, written scopeOne hour of your time a weekFully remote
The three places a forwarder loses the day
All three are read, copy, type work. That is what a well-configured tool does first, and your ops desk checks second.
Rate requests
Enquiry comes in by email. Someone reads it, checks rates across carriers and agents, builds the quote by hand, sends it. Repeat forty times a day.
Customs paperwork
Commercial invoices, packing lists, HS codes. Re-keyed into the declaration system by hand.
Status chasing
"Where is my container?" answered one email at a time.
The quote is the sale. Tomorrow morning is too late.
What that costs, as an illustration
Built from the same maths we use on every engagement: hours a week, times a £30 loaded cost, times 52 weeks. On the call we replace it with your numbers.
30 hours × £30 × 52 weeks = £46,800.
What this looks like in your business
Intelligent automation handles the rules. AI handles the reading, writing and routine decisions, and flags what it is unsure about. Your people handle the exceptions.
When this happens
A rate request lands in the ops inbox, or a shipment status changes with the carrier.
This runs on its own
The enquiry is logged, your current rate sheet and agent rates are checked, margin is applied, and a draft quote is built. On a status change, the customer update is written.
These people are told
The ops lead gets the draft quote with one button: send. The director sees anything unquoted after two hours. The customer gets their update without anyone typing it.
Where AI sits: reading the enquiry in whatever shape it arrives, checking the rate sheet, building the quote, and flagging the two things it is unsure about. Your ops desk reviews those, not the whole quote.
Process first. Automation second. AI where it earns its place.
We never start with a tool. We start with where your time is going. Then we make the routine run itself, and add AI at the steps that need judgement.
Uncover
Two weeks. We map enquiry to quote to booking and put a number on the wait.
Fix one thing
Six to ten weeks. Usually first-draft quoting from the enquiry email, using your rate sheets and your margins. Ops reviews and sends. Tested on live enquiries.
Keep it yours
Your rates, your templates, your carrier relationships. Nothing leaves the building. We write the one-page rule for what a tool may and may not see.
Your time
One named person. One hour a week. That is the entire commitment on your side.
Scheduling
Weekday evenings and Saturday mornings. Sessions never collide with your working day.
Your cost
Fixed fee, written scope. Agreed before any work begins.
Your people
People stay. Work changes. 86% of SMEs using AI report no change to headcount (BCC and University of Essex, 2026).
Freight forwarder: where the money leaks
Enquiry to quote to booking, mapped step by step. The wait points, the re-keying, the quote that goes out tomorrow. Published, free to read.
Open the mapThe fastest first step
Tell us what time yesterday's last quote went out. If it was this morning, fifteen minutes with us will pay for itself.
Book 15 minutesA message from the founder
Hello there, thanks for checking us out. My name is Isaac, and I am the founder of Shift Engine AI. I launched this business to serve established businesses that like the sound of AI but do not know where to start.
Our team brings a decade of experience working with organisations at every growth stage, first on intelligent process automation, and in the last few years on AI adoption alongside it.
Working with many business leaders, we have watched the same problem repeat. Leaders like the sound of AI, so they buy whichever tool jumps out at them, without a proper diagnosis of what the business needs. Just as often, they forget that intelligent automation matters as much as generative AI. AI can read emails, draft documents, send replies, even make calls. But it needs a solid workflow, configured intelligently, for a business process to run smoothly.
When the two are paired well, we have seen the same results again and again: better client retention, healthier margins, growth without extra headcount, and, dare we say it, happier employees.
So reach out directly. What is the number one challenge in your business right now? We are confident we can help you move in the right direction, with clear guidance on your processes and the right combination of intelligent automation and AI.
Isaac and the Shift Engine AI team
Three fair questions
Our rates change daily.
We have a TMS already.
Is this expensive?
Fifteen minutes. One process. Your numbers.
You leave knowing what a next-morning quote costs you, and whether it is worth fixing.