States which commodities you move and which you refuse, before the rate desk works up a quote on cargo you would decline anyway.
An AI agent for freight commodity restrictions answers what your operation will and will not carry. Every forwarder has a list: dangerous goods classes you are set up for and ones you are not, perishables you can handle only on certain lanes, high-value cargo above a threshold that needs approval, oversize that exceeds your equipment, and commodities you simply refuse. That list lives in the heads of two or three people and nowhere a shipper can see it, so inquiries for cargo you would never accept still reach the rate desk and still get worked up. The agent puts the list in front of the inquiry. It states plainly what is out of scope, explains the condition where something is conditional, and routes any dangerous goods classification question to a qualified person rather than guessing at it.
Puts the acceptance list in front of the inquiry.
States which commodity categories you carry and which you refuse
Explains conditional acceptance and what the condition is
Flags high-value cargo above your approval threshold
Identifies oversize and out-of-gauge before a rate is worked
Routes dangerous goods classification to a qualified person
Never classifies a commodity or confirms it is safe to ship
Acceptance decisions in forwarding are made late, usually by an operations person who sees the booking and recognizes a problem the sales side did not. By then a rate has been quoted, the shipper has planned around it, and somebody has to withdraw. That conversation damages the relationship far more than an immediate no would have, and it wastes the desk time that went into the quote. Moving the acceptance question to the front is straightforward once the list is written down, and writing it down has a second benefit: it surfaces how much of the list is actually policy and how much is one person's preference. Several forwarders find, when they do this, that they have been refusing categories they are perfectly capable of handling because nobody revisited the decision.
Identify the commodity, check the list, decline or route.
The agent asks what the goods actually are, not just the category, because acceptance turns on the specifics.
Carried, refused or conditional — and where conditional, what the condition is and who decides.
Refused cargo gets an immediate, polite no; anything involving dangerous goods classification goes to a qualified person.
A lithium battery shipment that stopped at the first question.
Scenario: a forwarder had twice withdrawn quotes at the booking stage after operations spotted cargo the company does not accept, and both customers went elsewhere permanently. An inquiry arrives for air freight of consumer electronics from Shenzhen. The agent asks what the goods are specifically and learns the units contain lithium-ion batteries shipped separately from the equipment. That is a dangerous goods question the agent does not attempt to resolve: it does not state a UN number, does not say which packing instruction applies, and does not tell the shipper whether the consignment is acceptable. What it does is establish the facts, state that the forwarder handles certain dangerous goods classes by air subject to a qualified review, and route the inquiry to the dangerous goods certified staff member the same morning with the product details attached. The shipper gets a real answer by lunchtime. In the same week the agent declines an inquiry for firearms components in a single exchange, which the desk would previously have spent half a day quoting.
Anybody whose acceptance list is not written down.
A withdrawn quote costs more than an immediate refusal.
You are the last line catching cargo sales already priced.
Classification questions must reach you, not be guessed.
You quote cargo the operation was always going to refuse.
Storage restrictions are part of acceptance and get forgotten.
What your station accepts differs from the corporate list.
Where the acceptance list lives and where a hard case goes.
Holds the carried, refused and conditional commodity list by mode.
Routes every dangerous goods question to certified staff immediately.
Sends the decline or the conditional answer in your wording.
Records what was refused and why, against the account.
Stores the acceptance policy the answers are drawn from.
Reports which refused commodities keep being requested.
The acceptance questions that should come before a rate.
Questions about deciding acceptance at the inquiry stage.
An AI agent for freight commodity restrictions states which commodities your operation carries, refuses or accepts conditionally, declines out-of-scope cargo in the first exchange, and routes every dangerous goods classification question to a qualified person.
No, and this is the hardest boundary in the set alongside customs. Classification, packing instructions and acceptability are determinations made by qualified staff, and an automated answer creates real safety and legal exposure.
It should recognize them as a trigger for a handover rather than a question to answer. They appear in an enormous range of ordinary consumer goods and are among the most commonly misdeclared items in air freight.
Usually more than people expect. Forwarders who do this often discover categories they refuse out of habit rather than policy, and revisiting a few of those opens up work they were already equipped for.
It should state the condition and who decides, not attempt the decision. "We handle this subject to review by our certified staff, who will come back today" is a complete answer; a guess at the outcome is not.
A short reason is worth giving where you have one, because it helps the shipper find the right provider. It is not worth a detailed justification, which invites negotiation on a policy decision.
Which refused commodities keep arriving. If one category accounts for a steady stream of declined inquiries, that is a capability decision worth making deliberately rather than by default.
States which commodities you move and which you refuse, before the rate desk works up a quote on cargo you would decline anyway.