Captures freight class, accessorials and delivery conditions up front, so an LTL quote matches what the carrier eventually bills.
An AI agent for LTL freight quote questions captures the details that decide what a less-than-truckload shipment actually costs: the commodity and its freight class, the dimensions and density that determine that class, and the accessorial conditions at both ends — liftgate, residential, inside delivery, limited access, appointment required. These are the things a shipper does not think to mention and a quote cannot survive without. Getting them at intake is the difference between a quote and a rebill argument three weeks later, when the carrier has reclassed the freight and somebody has to decide who absorbs it. The agent asks the questions your rate desk would ask, in plain language, without requiring the shipper to know what an NMFC code is.
Asks the class and accessorial questions before the rate goes out.
Captures commodity, dimensions, weight and packaging for class
Asks the accessorial questions at pickup and at delivery
Flags residential, limited access and appointment requirements
Records whether the freight is stackable and on pallets
Notes anything that would drive a carrier reclass
Hands the complete picture to pricing without quoting
LTL pricing is unusually unforgiving because the carrier reweighs and reclasses at the terminal, and whatever it finds becomes the bill regardless of what was quoted. A shipper who describes their pallet as "about five hundred pounds of parts" is not being evasive; they simply do not know that density decides class, or that a delivery to a rural business without a dock triggers three separate accessorials. Your rate desk knows all of this and asks it every time — when it gets the chance. What breaks is the inquiry that arrives by email at speed and gets quoted from what it said. Moving those questions to the point of inquiry protects the margin on the shipment and, more importantly, protects the relationship: nobody enjoys the conversation where a customer is told the rate they accepted was not the rate.
Describe the freight, describe both ends, hand it over.
Dimensions, weight, piece count, packaging and stackability, enough for the desk to establish class.
The agent asks about dock access, liftgate, residential and appointment requirements at pickup and delivery.
The desk receives a picture the carrier will recognize, and a note of anything likely to be reclassed.
A pallet that would have been reclassed at the terminal.
Scenario: a forwarder had absorbed four LTL rebills in a quarter, each traced back to a class quoted from an estimated weight. An inquiry arrives for two pallets of plastic housings from a supplier in Ohio to a customer site in rural Vermont. The shipper describes them as roughly 400 pounds each. The agent asks for dimensions and gets 48 by 40 by 60 inches, which makes the density low enough that the class the shipper assumed would not have survived the terminal scale — the desk now knows to quote it correctly rather than discover it later. It then asks about the delivery end and learns there is no dock, the site takes deliveries by appointment only, and the address is classified as limited access. Three accessorials that would have arrived as a surprise are on the request before it reaches pricing. The rate goes out higher than the shipper expected and is accepted anyway, because it comes with the reasons attached — and it is the rate that gets billed.
Anybody who absorbs LTL rebills more often than they would like.
Absorbed rebills come straight out of shipment margin.
You quote from descriptions the terminal will not agree with.
Accessorials at the delivery end are found out too late.
You have the rebill conversation you did not cause.
Every dispute traces back to an intake question.
Reclass rates are a quiet drain nobody reports on.
Where the LTL detail is captured and what pricing receives.
Holds the intake record including class drivers and accessorials.
Attaches the full freight description to the opportunity.
Confirms back to the shipper exactly what was captured.
Flags to pricing any inquiry likely to be reclassed.
Reports reclass and rebill frequency against intake completeness.
Stores packing lists and photos the shipper sends in.
The LTL details that decide whether a quote holds.
Questions about quoting LTL without inheriting a rebill.
An AI agent for LTL freight quote questions captures the details that decide an LTL rate — dimensions, weight, density, packaging, stackability and the accessorial conditions at pickup and delivery — so pricing quotes from the shipment the carrier will actually see.
No, and asking is usually counterproductive. It collects dimensions, weight and commodity, which is what class is derived from, and leaves the classification itself to your desk.
Because accessorials at the delivery end are the most common surprise on an LTL bill. Residential, limited access, appointment and liftgate can together exceed the linehaul on a small shipment.
It changes the linear feet a shipment occupies, and on a full-ish trailer that is a real cost. It is also one of the easiest questions to ask and one of the least often asked.
It adds a few minutes at intake and removes days of back-and-forth later. Shippers generally find the questions reassuring, because they signal that the rate is being built rather than guessed.
It can flag it internally and let your desk decide how to present it. Telling a shipper their assumed class is wrong is a pricing conversation, and it lands better from a person who can explain the alternative.
A documented description the shipper provided. When a rebill does arrive, the conversation is about a carrier inspection against a stated description, not about two recollections of an email.
Captures freight class, accessorials and delivery conditions up front, so an LTL quote matches what the carrier eventually bills.