Solutions · Freight forwarding
Ask every carrier. Quote the shipper first.
A forwarder's day is a supplier request: a shipper asks for a rate, every carrier and agent is asked, their answers compared and a quotation sent before a competitor's.
A rate enquiry is an RFQ
A shipper wants a rate for twelve pallets to Mombasa. The forwarder asks carriers and overseas agents, waits for their replies in every format, converts them to one currency and quotes. It is the same loop a parts trader runs, and the desk runs it the same way.
What the desk does
- Reads the enquiry from the e-mail or its attachment.
- Sends a numbered request to every carrier and agent you tick.
- Captures their replies, from a PDF, a screenshot or the e-mail itself.
- Quotes in the shipper's currency, and follows up on their clock.
The set
8 systems for freight forwarding.
TERRA-202Live
TRIAGE
Every e-mail and every attachment read and sorted: enquiry, supplier offer, complaint or automated mail, its language, a one-line summary, and whether a reply is owed.
4 capabilities
TERRA-301Live
RFQ
An enquiry in any form (a photo, a PDF, a spreadsheet, a pasted list) turned into a draft order in a minute, with the brand worked out from the part number.
6 capabilities
TERRA-302Live
SRQ
Suppliers ranked by how much of the order they can cover, and a request with an Excel sheet sent to every one you tick, numbered from the order.
5 capabilities
TERRA-303Live
OFFER
A supplier's reply in any form (screenshot, PDF, spreadsheet or the e-mail itself) read into the request line by line, each price shown beside the one it would replace.
6 capabilities
TERRA-309Live
RATES
Exchange rates fetched daily, and every cost converted at the rate of the request it came from.
2 capabilities
TERRA-304Live
QUOTE
Quotations and invoices as PDF and Excel, on your letterhead, with lead times in days, weights, split deliveries and alternatives, sent and tracked.
11 capabilities
TERRA-407Live
CLOCK
Each customer's local time on their card, from their address or their phone's country code, and every time on screen says whose clock it's on.
2 capabilities
TERRA-201Live
The company's sales mailbox, handled like a mail client inside the desk: conversations, read marks, who answered what, and HTML e-mail.
10 capabilities
From the blog
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TERRA-301TERRA-202TERRA-302
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Calling customers on their clock: time zones and the callback ladder
"Call me tomorrow at eleven" means eleven in Chennai, not in Dubai. How an outbound queue keeps promises across time zones, and when it stops.
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· Procurement
One click, every supplier: sourcing spare parts from price lists
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TERRA-307TERRA-302TERRA-308