Why booking emails take so much manual work
At a freight forwarder, jobs arrive by email: as plain text, as a PDF order, as an attached Excel list. Today someone reads the email, gathers the lane, dates, weight and load details, types them into the TMS, asks for whatever is missing and confirms the job to the customer. If a change comes in afterwards, the search for the right job starts all over again.
Extracting data or handling the case
Many tools read the fields from the email and pass them on as a record. That solves the typing, but not the case: follow-up questions, confirmation and every follow-up email stay with your team. CURA handles the whole case in the mailbox:
- Read. CURA reads the email and its attachments and recognises that it is a job.
- Create. The booking email becomes a case with the job data.
- Check. CURA checks the job for gaps.
- Follow up. If a detail is missing, CURA recognises the question that needs asking and drafts it, instead of passing on an incomplete job.
- Confirm. The reply to the customer is saved as a draft in the right mailbox, in your tone of voice.
- Assign. Follow-up emails and their attachments end up in the same case.
- Hand over. On request, the job data goes straight into the TMS.
Three types of solution
- Pure data extraction.
- The tool reads the fields from the email and attachment and passes them on. This fits if your jobs arrive in fixed formats and the rest of the case is meant to stay with your team anyway.
- TMS with AI capture.
- Your TMS provider captures jobs in its own system. This fits if you want to keep everything in the TMS; replies in the mailbox, incoming invoices and customs are usually not covered.
- Email back office.
- The AI works on the mailbox and handles the case from the booking email to the confirmation, including follow-up questions and follow-up emails. This is where PULSE sits. Which providers belong to which type is shown in the provider comparison 2026.
Handover to the TMS
On request, CURA hands the job data straight to the TMS, either through an application programming interface (API) or as a one-click suggestion that your back-office staff accept. As TMS integrations, synetra lists CargoSoft, Scope by Riege Software and SLS Works. If your TMS is not on the list, we clarify the connection in the consultation. Your TMS stays as it is.
Follow-up emails in the same case
After the job come changes, additions and status requests. CURA assigns them to the same case using references such as the job number, the sender and the subject line. If the assignment is not clear, a person decides instead of the AI guessing. What comes before the job is described in Automating freight rate and booking requests.
In Outlook, without an add-in
PULSE works on the mailbox itself: drafts, categories and folders appear directly in the Outlook you already use, and an add-in is optional. The AI does not send by itself; your back-office staff review and click send. Which emails CURA handles besides jobs is explained under Email automation for freight forwarders.
First results after four weeks
A rollout, not an IT project: after four weeks you see the first captured jobs, and you are fully in production after 8 to 12 weeks. CURA is the recommended starting point for PULSE.