The short answer: tell alfred_ once, “Text me when a shipper emails a load request or asks for a rate.” Each matching email sends you a text with the lane, dates and equipment when the email says them. Text back your rate, and alfred_ writes the reply in the shipper’s thread. It goes from your own address when you say send.
The load that went to someone faster
You’re a broker at a twelve-person brokerage. Your best shippers email load requests: “Need a 53’ dry van, Chicago to Atlanta, pickup Thursday 8 AM, deliver Friday, 38,000 lbs, rate?” They send the same email to three brokers.
At 10:12 you’re on the phone with a carrier about a load that broke down in Ohio. By the time you see the request at 10:55, the shipper has booked it with whoever answered at 10:20.
The native ways, and where they stop
Mail notifications. Turned on for everything, every rate confirmation, invoice and load board alert buzzes. Narrowed to VIP or Favorite People senders, a shipper’s invoices still buzz along with its load requests, because the match is on who sent it.
A TMS. It tracks loads once they’re in it. The request that arrives as an email isn’t in it yet.
Watching the inbox. It works when you’re not on the phone, which in brokerage is never.
Set up the rule
- Connect the inbox shippers write to. Sign in with Google or Microsoft; your password stays with them.
- Add your phone number and text alfred_ once from that phone. That turns texting on.
- Say the rule: “Text me when a shipper emails a load request or asks for a rate.”
- alfred_ repeats it back. See Email rules.
What it looks like
alfred_: Harbor Logistics (Sam Ortiz) wants a rate: 53’ dry van, Chicago, IL to Atlanta, GA, pickup Thursday 8 AM, deliver Friday, 38,000 lbs.
You: quote 2,450 all in, can pick up thursday 8am, delivery friday by 5
alfred_: Here’s the reply to Sam: “Hi Sam, we can cover it: $2,450 all in, pickup Thursday 8 AM in Chicago, delivery Friday by 5 PM in Atlanta. Let me know and I’ll send the rate confirmation.” Send it?
You: send
Illustrative exchange. The shipper, lane and rate are invented.
Where each step happens
- Phone, mid-call: the text arrives in iMessage on iPhone, or RCS or SMS on Android.
- Answering: “send” or “yes” sends it; anything else changes it first.
- Desktop: rules live in Settings, Rules; the thread is in your inbox as usual.
The honest caveat
alfred_ doesn’t price loads, find carriers or connect to your TMS: it gets the request to you and writes the reply you dictate. A rule is judged on meaning, so check the first few texts and narrow it to your key accounts if it’s too broad. Nothing goes to a shipper until you say send. alfred_ is a paid product; plans are on the pricing page.
