A Quiet Revolution in Freight Forwarding: Automation That Works
- INCO Global
- Oct 14
- 3 min read
Freight forwarding is one of the world’s most essential industries — but for many, it still feels stuck in a bygone era.
Rate procurement means juggling Excel files, PDFs, carrier emails, and browser tabs just to piece together a single ocean quote. Quoting itself can take hours — a tangle of surcharges, local fees, and shifting conditions. And once the quote is done, booking requires retyping the same data into another system, introducing both delay and the risk of costly manual errors.
It’s complex work. But it can be better.
The Everyday Pain of Ocean Freight Forwarders
Rate procurement today is scattered. Most forwarders rely on a mix of spreadsheets, internal databases, and rate sheets from multiple carriers. Validities change constantly, surcharges vary by lane and incoterm, and keeping data consistent across systems quickly becomes a full-time job.
Quoting then adds urgency to the mix. Customers want speed — but every quote demands time to cross-check rates, carrier charges, origin charges, destination charges, and margin thresholds. The process is opaque, error-prone, and often manual end-to-end.
Booking then asks you to do it all over again. Teams copy details from quotes into TMS systems or carrier portals — the same information, retyped again, because systems don’t talk to each other. Every extra step means more risk of error and less time for customer care.
The result: slow response times, frustrated teams, and missed opportunities.
Building Automation That Works (and Why It Matters)
AI is changing the lives of billions as we speak. But true automation isn’t just about AI — it’s about holistic and agile systems that connect, interpret, and act. APIs can unify rate sources. Algorithms can make sense of surcharge rules in seconds. AI can recommend winning patterns based on emerging trends.
When done right, a holistic forwarder automation system doesn’t replace your people — it exponentially increases their effectiveness. It gives your team their time back so they can reinvest it into your customer relationships. It removes the repetitive work that drains focus and lets teams do what they do best: serve customers, grow relationships, and move freight with confidence.
How INCO Global Delivers Modern Automation
At INCO Global, we’re building the modern intelligence layer for freight forwarders — a unified, AI-native platform that helps logistics teams quote faster, operate smarter, and deliver better service across air, ocean, and road.
Quote in under a minute. Our platform intelligently ingests your rates, surcharges, and agent data, with a state-of-the-art infrastructure in the backend automatically building your quotes specific to the details and needs of every RFQ.
Seamless quote-to-book workflows. Integrated directly into your email — no excess tabs, no double-entry, no errors.
AI-native intelligence tools. Unlock sales diagnostics, analytics, and insights that help teams quote more strategically, identify emerging business development opportunities, and act on key levers for maximizing your win rate.
The result: hyper-intelligent procurement, 90% faster quotes, and more time for the customer relationships that matter most.
The Quiet Revolution is Here
For years, freight tech promised transformation. But the tools that matter most are the ones that quietly make the work better — faster quotes, cleaner data, and more connected workflows.
At INCO Global, we believe that’s what the future of freight looks like: intelligent, connected, and fundamentally people-centric. A quiet revolution — powered by automation that simply works.