Freight quote management software for freight forwarders

What is freight quote management software?

Freight quote management software runs the quoting cycle a forwarder repeats all day: record the client's request, ask carriers or overseas agents for rates, collect their replies, compare them, and turn the chosen rate into a quotation. It is a different job from a CRM, which tracks a sales pipeline, and from a TMS, which runs shipments already won. Quote management is the step in between: getting priced.

Why quoting by email costs a pricing desk its day

One client request usually means asking several agents, because no single agent is cheapest on every lane. Done by email, that turns into the same routine every time:

• the same request typed or copied into several emails;
• replies arriving hours apart, some in the email, some in a PDF, some as a screenshot;
• rates copied by hand into a spreadsheet so they can be compared at all;
• working out which agents have not answered, and chasing them;
• lining up transit times, free days and validity dates that each agent writes differently.

Meanwhile the client is waiting, and often asking another forwarder the same question.

Still sending these by hand? Start with our free freight rate request email template for FCL, LCL and air.

How Lead Quote Track manages a freight quote

1. 1.

   Capture the client's request

   Forward the client's email to your personal LQT address, or paste a WhatsApp message into a new request. The route, mode, cargo and dates fill themselves; you add the client and check the details.

2. 2.

   Choose the agents

   Your agents are saved once, with the countries or regions and services they cover, or imported from Excel. On each request LQT lists only the agents who cover that origin or destination, and one click selects them all.

3. 3.

   Send one RFQ to all of them

   LQT sends the same request to every agent you selected, from your own Gmail or Outlook address. Agents get a normal email and reply as they always do: no portal, no login.

4. 4.

   See who has replied

   Each request shows how many agents have answered, for example 2 of 3, and one click lists the ones who have not.

5. 5.

   Remind the rest

   Send Reminder emails only the agents who have not replied, in one click. An admin can also switch on automatic reminders, which stop the moment an agent answers.

6. 6.

   AI reads the replies

   Each reply is read as it arrives. Carrier, freight charges, transit time, free days and validity are pulled out of the email text, an attached PDF or a screenshot.

7. 7.

   Check, compare and rank the rates

   Every rate lands in one table, sorted by all-in price, with the best price and the fastest transit marked. Each rate is checked first: an expired validity, a missing price, the wrong currency, parts that don't add up, or a price far from the others is flagged.

8. 8.

   Quote the client and carry on

   Pick the rate, set your selling price and send the client a quotation PDF. When the job is won, shipping instructions fill from the quote and the shipment, receivables and statistics follow from there.

Freight RFQ automation that agents do not have to join

An RFQ process only saves time if the agents take part, and agents answer email. So LQT sends each request as an ordinary email from your own address, and each reply comes back to a reply address tied to that quote request, so it is filed against the right request without anyone sorting an inbox. Agents never log into anything or change how they work.

What the AI does, and what it does not

LQT uses Claude, Anthropic's AI model, for two reading jobs:

• Agent replies. It extracts the carrier, freight charges, transit time, free days and validity from the email text, an attached PDF or an image.
• Client requests. It reads a forwarded email or pasted WhatsApp message into the quote request form, ready for you to check.

It does not choose the rate, set your selling price or send anything on its own. Every rate it reads can be checked against the original email and edited. And it never reads your mailbox: LQT's access to Gmail and Outlook is send-only. See how LQT protects your data.

Compare freight agent rates in one table

Replies to a request stop being separate emails. Each rate becomes a row in the same table, sorted by all-in price, with the best all-in price and the fastest transit time marked. Transit time, free days and validity sit beside every price, and the contract rates you already hold can sit in the same table as the rates you just collected, so the comparison is like for like, and the decision takes a glance instead of a spreadsheet. Before you trust a rate, LQT flags the ones that need a second look: expired validity, no price, the wrong currency, parts that don't add up, or a price far from the rest.

Who it is for

Freight forwarders' salespeople and pricing teams who have to ask agents or carriers for rates before they can answer a client: sea FCL, LCL, air and land. It is built for small and mid-size forwarders still quoting from email and Excel, and it works for one salesperson or a whole branch, on a computer or as an app on the phone. Forwarders who already run a TMS keep it: LQT is the step before, getting the rate. It is not a CRM and it does not ask the sales team to log activity for someone else's report; the record fills itself as the quote gets done.

Questions about freight quote management

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