Success Stories
A US ocean and air forwarder was growing about 20% a year. Its pricing desk was not. Three quarters of every quote was manual work: retyping inquiry emails, checking carrier sites, comparing agent rates in Excel and sending from Outlook. CargoEZ replaced that with one flow, from inquiry email to sent quote to scheduled follow up, run by the same team.
1 forward turns an inquiry email into a ready-to-price lead
1 request reaches every chosen vendor for spot rates
1 screen compares contract and agent rates, with totals
Summary
The 60 Second Summary
Who
A US freight forwarder and NVOCC, ocean and air, import and export, with a pricing desk of 4 to 6 people.
Problem
About 75% of quoting was manual. With 30 to 40 quotes a day and 100+ inquiries on peak days, slow quotes were sending customers to faster competitors.
What changed
Inquiry emails now become leads automatically. Contract rates appear on the file. One click requests rates from many vendors. Replies line up side by side, and branded quotes go out in one step with a follow-up reminder attached.
Outcome
Analysts spend their day choosing and pricing, not typing and searching. Every quote has a status, an owner and a follow-up date, and the manager sees the whole desk in one view.
Is This You?
This story will feel familiar if:
Your pricing team gets more inquiries than it can quote the same day
Rates live in carrier portals, agent emails and someone’s personal spreadsheet
You can’t say, right now, how many quotes are pending or waiting on a follow up
You are growing, and the only plan for more volume is another hire
Snapshot
Company type
Freight forwarder and NVOCC, ocean and air, import and export
Location
United States
Pricing team
4 to 6 analysts
Quote volume
30 to 40 quotes a day; 100+ inquiries on peak days
Growth
About 20% a year
Previous setup
Two quoting tools (one legacy, one newer), Excel for rate comparison, Outlook for sending
CargoEZ modules
Freight CRM, Rate Management, Quotations, Vendor Estimates
The Challenge
The Challenge: A Pricing Desk Built for Half the Volume
This forwarder had a good problem. Customers kept sending more inquiries. But the quoting process had not changed since the team was half its size, and slow quotes were costing business.
1. Every inquiry was retyped by hand. An analyst opened each email and keyed origin, destination, commodity, weight and dimensions into the quoting tool. On a 100 inquiry day, that was hours of typing before a single rate was checked. Every retype was also a chance to get a dimension or a port wrong.
2. Rates were scattered across portals, inboxes and Excel. For each lane, an analyst checked carrier websites, searched old agent emails and opened the latest contract sheet. When several agents replied, their numbers were pasted into Excel to compare. About three quarters of the quoting process ran this way.
3. Nobody could see the desk as a whole. With four or more people quoting at once, there was no shared view of what was pending, what had been sent, or what was waiting on an agent. A manager who wanted status had to ask each analyst.
4. Follow ups depended on memory. Once a quote was sent, it lived in someone’s Sent folder. If the analyst got busy, the follow up didn’t happen. Quotes went quiet, and so did the customers.
The hidden cost, in numbers (illustrative)
If retyping and rate hunting add just 10 minutes to each quote, 35 quotes a day is almost 6 hours of analyst time, every day. That is close to one full-time analyst doing data entry instead of pricing. Run the same math on your own desk.
Industry context
61% of logistics teams still rely on emails and spreadsheets for partner communication.
Only 23% of freight forwarders have digitized more than 75% of their business processes.
Requirements
What They Needed
Inquiries in the system without retyping every email
Contract rates showing up automatically when a lane is quoted
One action to request rates from several vendors
Vendor replies compared side by side, not in Excel
Quotes built from chosen rates, marked up and sent in one step
Follow-up reminders so no quote goes quiet
A manager view of the whole desk
And one constraint: grow quote volume without growing the pricing team.
Why CargoEZ
Why CargoEZ: From Old Setup to One Quoting Flow
Need
Old setup
With CargoEZ
Getting the inquiry in
Read email, retype every field
Forward the email; a lead is created with fields filled
Finding contract rates
Open each carrier’s sheet or portal
Matching contract rates appear on the file, by carrier
Asking agents for spot rates
One email at a time
One templated request to many vendors, each sent separately
Comparing replies
Paste into Excel
Vendor estimates line up with totals on one screen
Sending the quote
Build in Excel, send from Outlook
Pick lines, add markup, send a branded quote from your own email
Following up
Memory
Dated reminders on the analyst’s dashboard, with a follow-up count
How It Works
How CargoEZ Fits, Step by Step
Step 1
Inquiries arrive as leads, not emails
Each company gets a dedicated lead automation address. The analyst forwards an inquiry there, and CargoEZ creates a lead with the email’s details mapped into the matching fields. Anything it can’t map goes into the notes, so nothing is lost. The analyst reviews and completes the file instead of building it from zero.
Step 2
Every file shows what’s missing
Progress indicators show which parts are complete: routing, commodity, parties, charges and quote status. Missing fields are flagged before a quote goes out. Volume and chargeable weight calculate from the dimensions entered, so nobody does that math by hand.
Step 3
Contract rates appear on their own
Carrier rate sheets are uploaded in bulk using an Excel template, with validity dates. When a lead is created for a covered lane, matching contract rates from each carrier appear in the file. Surcharge breakdowns are one click away. Special rates for a set period can be loaded with their own expiry date. See rate management
Step 4
One rate request reaches every vendor
For lanes without contract rates, the analyst picks the vendors and sends one templated request, filled from the lead. Each vendor gets a separate email with the lead reference in the subject line, so replies are easy to match. Vendor lists can be preset by lane or service: airlines for air files, truckers for door delivery, overseas agents for imports.
Step 5
Replies line up side by side
Each reply is entered as a vendor estimate. One agent quoting several airlines becomes several lines. All options sit together with totals, so choosing the best one takes seconds.
Step 6
The quote goes out in one step
The analyst picks the chosen lines, adds markup or a discount, and sends a branded quotation from CargoEZ through their own email address. Lines can show in detail or roll up into one door-to-door price. Standard charges for regular customers can be preset.
Step 7
Follow ups happen on schedule
Reminders can be set on any quote and appear on the analyst’s dashboard on the due date. Follow-up emails go out from the file and are counted, so everyone can see how many times a customer was chased.
Step 8
The manager sees the whole desk
Saved filters show pending quotes by salesperson, lane, mode, or import versus export. A manager sees what’s waiting without asking around.
Before and After
Before and After CargoEZ
Area
Before
After CargoEZ
Inquiry intake
Retyped from each email
Forwarded email creates a filled lead
Contract rates
Looked up per carrier
Shown on the file automatically
Spot rate requests
One email per vendor, by hand
One templated request to many vendors
Rate comparison
Excel
Side-by-side vendor estimates with totals
Quote creation
Excel plus Outlook
Branded quote sent from the file
Follow ups
Memory
Dashboard reminders with a follow-up count
Desk visibility
Ask each analyst
Saved filters by rep, lane and mode
Manual share of quoting
About 75%
Intake, rate lookup, comparison and sending all run inside CargoEZ
Results
What Changed for the Team
Analysts start from a filled lead, not a blank form
Every rate the desk needs, contract or spot, sits on the same file
No quote leaves without a status, and none goes quiet without a reminder firing
New analysts get productive faster because rates, vendor lists and templates already live in the system
Growth no longer means an automatic new hire on the pricing desk
What Other Forwarders Report
Rated 4.8 out of 5 on G2
CargoEZ is rated 4.8 out of 5 on G2 from 40 reviews. Reviewers report going live in under a month and reaching payback in about 4 months, on average.
Source: G2 reviews ↗
Air 7 Seas Transport Logistics
Reports a 33% rise in Sales and Customer Service performance, crediting CargoEZ’s structured workflow from lead management to shipment tracking. (Doug Roderick, Vice President)
Senator International Shipping
Says the structured flow from lead creation to invoicing makes operations smoother and more efficient. (Sebastin, CEO)
Onboarding
How Onboarding Works
G2 reviewers report going live in under a month on average. Your timeline depends on your data and your team’s availability.
Step 1
Import
Customers, vendors and current carrier rate sheets come in through Excel templates.
Step 2
Configure
The lead automation address, rate request and quote templates, vendor lists by lane and service, and standard charges are set up with your team.
Step 3
Train
Sessions run on your live inquiries and are recorded for later.
Step 4
Go live
CargoEZ becomes your quoting system, with a customer success manager assigned.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Can CargoEZ turn inquiry emails into quotes automatically?
Yes. Each company gets a lead automation email address. Forwarding an inquiry creates a lead with the email’s details mapped into fields. Unmapped details are kept in notes for the analyst to review.
Do we have to retype carrier contract rates?
No. Rate sheets are uploaded in bulk through an Excel template, with validity dates. Matching rates then appear on any lead for a covered lane.
How do we request spot rates from several agents at once?
Pick the vendors and send one templated request from the lead. Each vendor gets a separate email with the lead reference in the subject line.
Do quotes go out from CargoEZ or from our own email?
Quotes are created in CargoEZ and sent through your own email address, with your branding.
Can a manager see all pending quotes?
Yes. Saved filters show pending quotes by salesperson, lane, mode, or import versus export.
How long does setup take?
G2 reviewers report implementation in under a month on average. We scope your timeline in the demo, based on your data.
Turn Your Next Inquiry Email into a Sent Quote, Live
Bring one of your real lanes. In 30 minutes we’ll take it from inquiry to quote, with rate comparison and follow ups.