The verdict in three sentences
A forwarder that receives 400 quote requests a week and answers within 24 hours mechanically loses the shippers who already got a competitor's price. An AI quoting agent that reads the email or WhatsApp message, applies your freight and port charge tariffs and sends an offer in under 1 hour, with human approval above a threshold, lifts the conversion rate without hiring. The project runs 8 to 12 weeks and falls under Kolonell's custom application grid.
Why response time decides the shipment
In Rotterdam, Amsterdam or Jebel Ali, an importer bringing in a 40 foot container from Shanghai or Mumbai typically asks 3 to 5 forwarders. The first to reply with a clear price wins a disproportionate share of shipments. Yet a full quote draws on several sources: ocean or air freight, surcharges (BAF, CAF, peak season), terminal handling, estimated customs disbursements, trucking to the final warehouse.
| Indicator | Today | With AI agent and human approval |
|---|---|---|
| Requests received | 400 a week | 400 a week |
| Average response time | 24 hours | Under 1 hour for 70 to 80 % of requests |
| Unanswered requests | 15 to 25 % | Under 5 % |
| Quoting team time | 3 full-time staff | 1 person for complex cases and approval |
| Conversion rate | 10 to 12 % | 13 to 16 %, market estimate |
| Tariff errors (missed surcharge) | 3 to 5 % of offers | Under 1 %, rules applied every time |
The agent does not "guess" a price. It extracts the request data (origin, destination, container type, weight, incoterm, commodity), queries your current tariffs and builds the offer with your margin rules. The language model reads the request and drafts the reply; it never sets rates.
What a serious quoting agent includes
Channel intake. Shared inbox, website form, WhatsApp Business. Attachments (packing lists, pro forma invoices in PDF) are read to extract weight and volume.
Tariffs. Freight by carrier and port of loading, terminal charges, agency fees, insurance, trucking by zone. Updates happen in a simple back office, without a developer.
Guardrails. Above a threshold (for example 8,000 EUR or USD 9,000, dangerous goods, out of gauge, inland destinations), the offer goes to human approval. Every offer is logged with the tariff version used.
Sales follow-up. Automatic reminder at D+2, won or lost status, loss reason, conversion dashboard by customer and trade lane.
| Item | 2026 order of magnitude | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Language model cost | 0.02 to 0.05 EUR (USD 0.02 to 0.06) per request | About 400 to 1,000 EUR a year for 400 weekly requests |
| Market freight quoting software | 300 to 1,500 EUR (USD 330 to 1,650) a month | Generic rate logic, your own tariffs still to load |
| Kolonell medium application | 4,000,000 to 7,000,000 FCFA (6,100 to 10,670 EUR) | Email, tariffs, PDF offer, approval |
| Kolonell complex application | 7,000,000 to 15,000,000+ FCFA (10,670 to 22,870+ EUR) | WhatsApp, attachments, TMS or ERP link, dashboard |
| Kolonell maintenance | 35,000 / 75,000 / 120,000 FCFA a month (53 / 114 / 183 EUR) | Rule updates, answer quality monitoring |
| Hosting | Quoted | Depends on volume and data location |
The 8 to 12 week schedule
Weeks 1 and 2 gather 300 to 500 anonymised historical requests and the offers sent, which become the test set. Weeks 3 to 7 cover extraction, the tariff engine, offer generation and the back office. In weeks 8 to 10 the agent runs in draft mode: it prepares each offer, a person approves it, and the gap is measured. Automatic sending only opens once 95 % of offers are approved without edits. See also automating sales reporting for a distributor and our AI services for businesses.
Mini case study
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Pieter, commercial director of a 45-person forwarder in Rotterdam with an Amsterdam office, receives 400 requests a week. Today 80 % get an answer and 11 % of answered requests convert, about 35 shipments a week, at an average margin of 180 EUR per shipment.
Calculation: with 96 % answered and a cautious 12.5 % conversion, the company reaches 48 shipments a week. Counting only half of the gap, 6 extra shipments: 6 x 180 EUR x 46 weeks = 49,680 EUR of extra margin a year. A complex application around 14,000 EUR, plus about 1,000 EUR of model costs and 114 EUR of monthly maintenance, pays back in about 4 months.
FAQ
Can the agent get a price wrong?
Rates come from your tariffs, not from the language model. The risk sits in data extraction, which is why the draft phase measures the share of offers approved unchanged, with a 95 % target before automatic sending.
What about incomplete requests?
The agent replies within 1 hour asking for missing details (weight, incoterm, HS code). In practice, 20 to 30 % of initial requests are incomplete.
Can WhatsApp requests be handled?
Yes, through the WhatsApp Business API. Voice notes can be transcribed, but we recommend steering them to a short form to keep accuracy high.
Is customer data protected?
Requests are stored in your own database with access logs. Processing follows GDPR in the Netherlands or the UAE data protection law in Dubai, and model providers are chosen so your data is not reused for training.
How long does a tariff update take?
A few minutes in the back office, or by importing the carrier's Excel file. Surcharges can carry a validity date so no outdated offer goes out.
Let's scope your project. We analyse your historical requests, tariffs and approval thresholds, for an agent in production within 8 to 12 weeks. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
