FlowMarket
Where to find logistics and freight services: FlowMarket is a B2B sourcing network powered by an AI agent. You describe the shipment — the goods, the route, the dimensions and weight, the incoterms, the deadline — and the agent matches you with freight forwarders, carriers and warehousing providers who actually run that lane, then requests rates and transit times so you can compare them in one place.
Sourcing freight and logistics
Freight quotes look comparable and usually are not. Two forwarders can price the same movement on different assumptions about dimensions, packaging, waiting time and who clears customs, and the difference does not appear until the invoice does. That is why the cheapest quote so often turns into a mid-range invoice, and why buyers stop trusting the comparison entirely.
The fix is at the enquiry, not at the quote. Dimensions, weight, stackability, incoterms, deadline, who packs and who clears — stated once, given to everybody. Forwarders quoting the same brief produce numbers that can actually be compared, and the ones who need to ask are asking about the shipment rather than filling in the blanks with assumptions.
What kind of provider you actually need
- Freight forwarder — arranges the movement across modes and carriers, handles documents and customs. The right answer for most international shipments and for anything with a handover.
- Direct carrier — owns the trucks, the vessel space or the aircraft capacity. Usually cheaper on a simple, repeating domestic lane, and less flexible when something goes wrong.
- Contract logistics — warehousing, pick and pack, kitting and distribution as an ongoing service. A supplier relationship, not a shipment.
- Project and heavy cargo — out-of-gauge machinery, permits, route surveys, lifting. A specialist discipline where a general forwarder's quote is a guess.
- Customs brokerage — classification, clearance and compliance, sometimes bought separately from the transport when the goods are sensitive or the tariff position is contested.
What decides whether a forwarder fits
- Lane experience — a forwarder strong into the US may be weak into Brazil. Ask how often they run your specific lane, not whether they can.
- Mode and equipment — out-of-gauge, temperature-controlled, hazardous or high-value cargo each need equipment and licences a general quote does not imply.
- Customs capability — whether they clear in-house or subcontract, and who carries the liability for a misclassification. This is where delays and penalties come from.
- What the rate includes — terminal handling, documentation, demurrage, waiting time and fuel surcharges. Ask for the all-in figure to the named delivery point, in writing.
What freight costs
A freight rate is a base price plus a stack of accessorials, and the accessorials are where quotes diverge. Terminal handling charges, documentation fees, customs entry, demurrage and detention after the free days, waiting time at a site without a dock, and fuel or currency surcharges that move monthly. A quote without them is not wrong, it is incomplete — and incompleteness always resolves in the forwarder's favour.
For anything repeating, the number worth negotiating is not the spot rate but the all-in cost per unit moved over a quarter, with the accessorials named. Spot rates are volatile by design; a lane you run weekly should be priced as a lane, not as fifty separate shipments.
How the AI agent matches providers
The agent reads your shipment description rather than your keywords. It searches the FlowMarket network and connected industrial directories together, scores every candidate on how well it answers what you described — lane, mode, cargo type, timing — and drops anything that does not clear the bar. Each match comes back with a plain-language reason, so a forwarder who genuinely runs your route is distinguishable from one who will simply buy it in.
Moving a machine is not moving a pallet
Industrial freight breaks the standard model regularly: a machine that exceeds container height, a load needing a permit and a route survey, a delivery to a site with no loading dock and no forklift. These are solved before dispatch or they are solved expensively on the day. Describing the object and the destination honestly — including what is not available at the delivery site — gets you quotes from specialists rather than optimistic numbers from generalists.