Project cargo software for the weeks before a price exists
A project file opens long before anyone can quote it. FreighAI takes over the email that fills those weeks: the survey chase, the permit correspondence and the request to every supplier.
Every email your company receives is read, understood and turned into a task for the right person, with the answer already drafted. Your team approves. Nobody lives in the inbox any more.
The first workflow here is the supplier request and the chase behind it.
need DHL quote Gurugram → Ajman, 72kg, by Friday. express.
packing list attached. urgent pls 🙏
Pls quote for shipment as below. Confirmed pkg dims attached, IEC docs to follow…
- 01On a project file the price comes last. Before it sit a route survey, a permit view and six suppliers who each hold part of the answer.
- 02FreighAI does not produce the survey, the lift plan, the permit or the charter party. Those stay with your own specialists and the people who sign them.
- 03What it takes over is the correspondence around them. The request to each supplier, the chase for every reply, and permit mail arriving on three clocks.
- 04Your team approves. They do not compose, forward, file or chase. The reply goes out in their name.
- 05Discovery decides which mailboxes FreighAI reads, and which parts of the file stay with your project engineers.
The enquiry arrives with no price in it
A project enquiry is not a rate request. It arrives from an EPC contractor as an email with a general arrangement drawing attached. One transformer. A refinery column. A boring machine in sections. Heavy Lift and Project Forwarding International defines project cargo as large, heavy, high-value or mission-critical equipment intended for a specific industrial project.
Everything else is found out by email. The same publication lists what project logistics covers: route surveys, regulatory permitting, multimodal transport planning, customs clearance, lift engineering and site delivery coordination. None of it is a lane with a number beside it.
Start with the road. A route survey maps the path between the origin and the site, analysing road width and bridge capacity and recording the obstacles between. It is what makes a permit possible. Until it comes back there is nothing honest to quote.
Then the permits, which are not one thing anywhere. The Federal Highway Administration states it plainly. The Federal government does not issue permits for oversize or overweight vehicles, and this is a State option. A move across three states is three applications, against three sets of rules, with three sets of conditions to satisfy.
Europe is the same problem in a different shape. The European Commission’s best practice guidelines for abnormal road transports record that the time needed to deliver a permit may vary from two working days up to two months, that requirements differ between Member States, and that escort rules vary too, private or police. Behind it is one question. Can the bridges carry the vehicle, and do the roads suit the load.
One highway authority makes the wait concrete. Cheshire East Council in England publishes its own notice periods for abnormal loads. Up to 80 tonnes, at least two clear working days. Between 80 and 150 tonnes, at least five. Over 150 tonnes, a special application, usually with eight weeks. Notice goes to the highway authority, the bridge authority and the police, and the haulier gives an indemnity behind it. Those are one council’s rules, not a national standard. Your project manager wants one date. Your file holds several clocks.
The sea leg is not a booking either. On a liner sailing you book space. Here you contract for the carriage itself. BIMCO publishes HEAVYCON 2007 as a standard transportation contract for heavy and voluminous cargoes, written primarily for semi-submersible vessels in the super heavy lift market, where cargo is almost exclusively carried on deck. For tug and barge work BIMCO publishes PROJECTCON, written to remove the need for up to three contracts on one project.
The customer is not buying a shipment either. An EPC contractor carries a single scope for the works, and relies on project logistics people for just-in-time delivery of critical components. So one ordinary week on a project desk holds all of this at once:
- an out-of-gauge enquiry with drawings attached and no route agreed,
- a surveyor’s report that is late, with a permit application behind it,
- requests out to hauliers, breakbulk carriers, crane operators and agents,
- permit and escort mail from three separate authorities,
- “does it still make the site date” from the project manager, every week, and
- supplier invoices, each for a different part of the same move.
None of that is a shipment record. It is one conversation with every party, and a folder cannot hold a conversation.
What changes when FreighAI reads the project mailbox
The first workflow on a project desk is not a quotation. It is the request that goes to every supplier, and the chase behind each of them.
FreighAI takes over the inbox. It watches every company mailbox, pricing, operations, tracking and accounts, and follows each conversation from start to finish, not one message at a time. It works out what each email is and what it needs. It writes the reply, creates the task, and puts it in front of the right person in the right department. That person reads it beside the original conversation and approves. They do not compose, forward, file or chase. The reply goes out in their name. The follow-ups happen on their own.
On a project desk that starts with the enquiry and its drawings. FreighAI reads PDF, Excel, Word, forwarded email, WhatsApp messages, photos and scans. It works out what each email is and what it needs, then takes the action that message calls for. It writes the reply, creates the task, and puts it in front of the right person in the right department, beside the original conversation. The file becomes one task with every party on it.
The survey and the permit are somebody else’s work. The waiting is yours. FreighAI spots what is missing in an enquiry and drafts the email asking for it. Follow-ups, chasers and reminders happen on their own, on the same conversation. When the surveyor is late, the chase is already running.
Then the suppliers, because one piece needs a programme rather than a carrier. FreighAI emails all your agents for a lane in one go, with the route and charge lines filled in, then chases the ones who do not reply. On a project file that list is not only agents. One move needs all of these, each on its own clock:
- the surveyor, for the report the permit depends on,
- the haulier, for the abnormal load and the indemnity behind it,
- the crane or modular transporter operator, for each lift,
- the carrier, for the sea leg and its contract,
- the escort provider, private or police, and
- the agent at the far end, for delivery into site.
A permit condition is a different kind of mail again. It changes the route or the escort, and a person has to decide what that costs. FreighAI does not decide it. It puts the condition and the whole conversation in front of the person who owns the project, then drafts what they choose to send.
Work passes from pricing to operations to accounts with the email and everything it found attached. Nobody forwards it, re-keys it or asks for an update. That runs from the projects desk to operations to accounts, over a job that may last a year.
Pricing comes last here, and it comes from people. Where a lane has to be priced by another agent or over the phone, the wait belongs to whoever is answering — not to the software. FreighAI still writes the RFQ, chases the reply, and turns whatever comes back into a priced, margin-checked quote the moment it lands.
Your people work in FreighAI. Not in the inbox. Not in five browser tabs.
- 01Enquiry with drawingsInto the projects mailbox
- 02Route surveyYour surveyor and engineer
- 03Requests go outHaulier, carrier, crane, agent
- 04Replies chasedUntil each one lands
- 05Permit and noticeFiled by your haulier
- GATEYour project lead approves
- 07Charter partyYour broker and the carrier
- 08Status and invoicesDrafted on the same file
Every supplier who has not answered is already a task
FreighAI emails all your agents for a lane in one go, with the route and charge lines filled in, then chases the ones who do not reply. The same request goes to the haulier, the carrier, the crane operator and the surveyor.
- Six suppliers, one fileFreighAI works out what each email is and what it needs, then takes the action that message calls for.
- Nobody has to remember who is lateFollow-ups, chasers and reminders happen on their own, on the same conversation.
- The file is the place of workYour people work in FreighAI, not in the inbox.
Which parts of FreighAI would a project desk use first?
Choose by where the file spends its weeks, not by the product list.
Quotation Agent
Relevant when no price can be given until six suppliers have answered. FreighAI emails all your agents for a lane in one go, with the route and charge lines filled in, then chases the ones who do not reply. When the customer pushes back on price, a counter-offer is drafted and waits for approval.
Booking and Job Orders Agent
Relevant when an accepted programme has to become a job carrying every supplier, reference and document. A won quote becomes a job on its own, fully filled in. What moves into your own project records is decided in scope.
Tracking Agent
Relevant when the project manager asks weekly and the answer sits with a barge, a haulier and a crane crew. FreighAI answers “where is my cargo?” on the customer’s own thread, from carrier status, for approval. Which legs can be read automatically is a discovery question.
Invoice Reconciliation
Relevant when heavy haulage, crane hire, escort, port and carrier bills all arrive against one project. FreighAI reads a carrier bill and matches every airway bill back to its job, checking line by line before it is booked. The mechanism is the same when the bill is a barge fixture.
What every workflow shares
Whichever chase you start with, the same engine runs the rest. FreighAI watches every company mailbox, pricing, operations, tracking and accounts, and follows each conversation from start to finish. Chasing, tracking checks, quote expiry and follow-ups run on their own. Nobody has to remember.
Begin where the file spends its weeks. That is the supplier request and the survey it waits on.
What stays with your own specialists, what FreighAI adds and what must be scoped
A discovery structure for a project desk, not a connector specification.
| Area | Stays with your own people | FreighAI adds | Decision required |
|---|---|---|---|
| The route survey | The survey of road width, bridge capacity and obstacles, and the judgement from it, stays with your surveyor and engineer | Nothing on the survey. It asks for the report, chases it, and carries what it says into the requests that follow | Who commissions the survey, and what may FreighAI quote from it in an email? |
| Permits and notifications | The application or notice filed with the highway authority, the bridge authority and the police stays with the haulier who gives the indemnity | Nothing on the filing. It keeps permit mail on one file, chases the authority that has not answered and tells the project manager what is open | Which mailbox does permit mail arrive in, and who may reply to an authority? |
| Lift plans and stowage | The lift plan, the method statement and the lashing and stowage engineering stay with the engineers who sign them | Nothing. FreighAI does not produce engineering. It moves the document to whoever is waiting and chases the version that is late | Which documents may FreighAI read, and who holds the copy of record? |
| The contract for the carriage | The charter party and its terms stay with your broker and the carrier, whatever the fixture | Nothing on the terms. It keeps the correspondence around the fixture together and drafts the replies your team approves | Who negotiates the fixture, and what may be drafted once it is agreed? |
| Supplier prices | The relationships and the negotiated numbers are yours. Every price here comes from a person who has to answer first | Emails all your agents for a lane in one go, with the route and charge lines filled in, then chases the ones who do not reply. | Which suppliers go on a first request, and who approves the price sent out? |
| Status, invoices and the site date | The site date, the schedule your customer works to, fleet and heavy-haulage management, and your statutory books | Answers the weekly status question on the customer’s own thread, and matches supplier bills to the project before they are booked | Where does status come from on a barge, and who approves an invoice match? |
- The route survey
- Stays with your own people
- The survey of road width, bridge capacity and obstacles, and the judgement from it, stays with your surveyor and engineer
- FreighAI adds
- Nothing on the survey. It asks for the report, chases it, and carries what it says into the requests that follow
- Decision required
- Who commissions the survey, and what may FreighAI quote from it in an email?
- Permits and notifications
- Stays with your own people
- The application or notice filed with the highway authority, the bridge authority and the police stays with the haulier who gives the indemnity
- FreighAI adds
- Nothing on the filing. It keeps permit mail on one file, chases the authority that has not answered and tells the project manager what is open
- Decision required
- Which mailbox does permit mail arrive in, and who may reply to an authority?
- Lift plans and stowage
- Stays with your own people
- The lift plan, the method statement and the lashing and stowage engineering stay with the engineers who sign them
- FreighAI adds
- Nothing. FreighAI does not produce engineering. It moves the document to whoever is waiting and chases the version that is late
- Decision required
- Which documents may FreighAI read, and who holds the copy of record?
- The contract for the carriage
- Stays with your own people
- The charter party and its terms stay with your broker and the carrier, whatever the fixture
- FreighAI adds
- Nothing on the terms. It keeps the correspondence around the fixture together and drafts the replies your team approves
- Decision required
- Who negotiates the fixture, and what may be drafted once it is agreed?
- Supplier prices
- Stays with your own people
- The relationships and the negotiated numbers are yours. Every price here comes from a person who has to answer first
- FreighAI adds
- Emails all your agents for a lane in one go, with the route and charge lines filled in, then chases the ones who do not reply.
- Decision required
- Which suppliers go on a first request, and who approves the price sent out?
- Status, invoices and the site date
- Stays with your own people
- The site date, the schedule your customer works to, fleet and heavy-haulage management, and your statutory books
- FreighAI adds
- Answers the weekly status question on the customer’s own thread, and matches supplier bills to the project before they are booked
- Decision required
- Where does status come from on a barge, and who approves an invoice match?
Every row is a question for discovery, not a promise. Nothing moves out of the second column unless you decide it should.
Where does FreighAI sit on a project file?
A project forwarder already owns the two things that decide whether a move happens. People who can read a drawing and judge a route, and suppliers who answer. FreighAI is not a third.
Keep your TMS for the records. FreighAI runs the work around them. That holds for project records too. FreighAI is an AI-first freight operations platform that can run standalone or work alongside an existing TMS or ERP. It does not require a forced replacement.
Only the middle band changes hands. What arrives at the top is email, and email is the one layer of this business nobody has ever bought a system for.
Enquiries with drawings, survey reports, supplier prices, permit and escort correspondence, weekly status questions and the invoices at the end.
Reads it, puts each reply against the leg it belongs to, asks for what is missing, chases it, drafts the answer and hands a finished task to the right person.
The route survey, the lift plan, the method statement, the permit and the charter party. None of it moves.
Which workflow should a project desk start with?
We scope the first workflow, integration requirements and implementation plan with your team. The first candidate is the supplier request and its chase, because that is where the weeks go. A serious scoping conversation answers five questions before a date.
| Question | What a good answer sounds like |
|---|---|
| What starts it? | An enquiry with drawings, in a mailbox you can name. |
| What does it produce? | One file holding every supplier request, every reply and the survey it waited on. |
| Who approves? | The person who owns that project, before anything leaves in their name. |
| What stays yours? | The survey, the lift plan, the permit, the charter party and the site schedule. |
| How will you judge it? | Days from enquiry to a complete set of supplier prices, and how many requests are unanswered at the end of a week. |
- What starts it?
- What a good answer sounds like
- An enquiry with drawings, in a mailbox you can name.
- What does it produce?
- What a good answer sounds like
- One file holding every supplier request, every reply and the survey it waited on.
- Who approves?
- What a good answer sounds like
- The person who owns that project, before anything leaves in their name.
- What stays yours?
- What a good answer sounds like
- The survey, the lift plan, the permit, the charter party and the site schedule.
- How will you judge it?
- What a good answer sounds like
- Days from enquiry to a complete set of supplier prices, and how many requests are unanswered at the end of a week.
Those five answers are the implementation plan. A timeline offered before them is a guess.
The objections we hear most
Do you produce our route survey or our lift plan?
No. The survey is a technical assessment, and the lift plan and method statement are signed engineering. Both stay with your surveyor and your engineers. FreighAI works on the email around them: the request, the chase, the circulation and the reply.
Can you get the permit for us?
No, and no permitting connection is claimed on this site. The Federal Highway Administration says the Federal government does not issue permits for oversize or overweight vehicles and that it is a State option. In England the notice comes from the haulier. That application is not ours to make. The correspondence around it is.
Our quotes take weeks because our suppliers take weeks. What can software do about that?
Not shorten their reply. Where a lane has to be priced by another agent or over the phone, the wait belongs to whoever is answering — not to the software. FreighAI still writes the RFQ, chases the reply, and turns whatever comes back into a priced, margin-checked quote the moment it lands. The European Commission puts permit delivery at two working days to two months. Software cannot move that. It can make sure the request went out on day one.
Every project is different. Is this only useful on repeat business?
The cargo is different every time. The correspondence is not. An enquiry with drawings, a survey to wait for, requests to several suppliers, a chase behind each, a permit condition to absorb and invoices at the end. That shape repeats on every project.
Will it write to a carrier or an authority without us seeing it?
Your team approves every reply before it sends. The reply goes out in the name of the person who owns that project. Changing that is a deliberate decision with rules written down.
Our drawings and specifications are confidential to the client.
Which mailboxes FreighAI reads and which documents it may open are agreed before anything is connected, and written into the scope.
Common questions
Is FreighAI project cargo software?
Not in the sense of survey, lift planning or permitting software. It does not produce engineering and it does not apply for permits. It runs the email, the requests and the chasing around a project file, which is where most of the week goes.
Does it cover heavy lift and breakbulk, or only containers?
It is not organised by how the cargo is packed. Out of gauge, breakbulk on individual pieces or a module on a heavy-lift vessel all generate the same thing. A long conversation with several suppliers.
Can it tell us whether a bridge will take the load?
No. The European Commission’s guidelines put that with the authorities, who verify that bridge structures on a route can accommodate the vehicle and that the roads suit the load. FreighAI carries their answer to the people waiting for it.
What happens when a permit comes back with a condition on it?
It becomes a task for the person who owns the project, with the condition and the whole thread beside it. They decide what it means for cost and for the site date. The replies are then drafted for approval.
Which contract will our sea leg run under?
Your broker and your carrier decide that, not us. BIMCO publishes HEAVYCON 2007 for heavy and voluminous cargoes on semi-submersible vessels, and PROJECTCON for the tug and barge sector.
We move ordinary freight as well as projects. Is this the right page?
Read this one for the project desk, then the page for the freight you move day to day. The ocean and road pages own the rate, capacity and booking side.
- Heavy Lift & Project Forwarding International — Essential project cargo terms you should know (5 August 2025)verified 2026-09-03
- Federal Highway Administration, US Department of Transportation — Oversize and overweight vehicle permitsverified 2026-09-03
- European Commission — European best practice guidelines for abnormal road transportsverified 2026-09-03
- Cheshire East Council — Abnormal load notifications (page last reviewed 22 July 2026)verified 2026-09-03
- BIMCO — HEAVYCON 2007 standard transportation contractverified 2026-09-03
- BIMCO — PROJECTCON special projects charter partyverified 2026-09-03
Permit thresholds, notice periods and escort rules change, and they differ by country, by state and by council. The authorities above are where to read them, and the English notice periods quoted here are one council’s published rules rather than a national standard. No lashing, stowage or cargo-securing rule is quoted on this page: the international source could not be retrieved on 3 September 2026, so nothing is stated in its name.
Bring the project that waited five weeks on a permit.
Send us one real project enquiry from this year, with the survey chase and the supplier replies still attached. We will show you the requests FreighAI would have sent on day one, the chases behind them, and where your project lead approves.