A profitable quote does not always become a profitable shipment. In this episode of The Loadstar Podcast, host Charlotte Goldstone asks where freight forwarders lose money between booking and delivery, and what they can do to protect their margins.

Emma Crumpton, enterprise solutions director at Portcast, explains how detention and demurrage charges, mismatched buy and sell rates, and costs that are never billed back to customers can erode the return on a job. The problem is often the volume and complexity of information operators must manage across carriers, ports and contracts.

Ian Powell, tech and solutions director at Metro, brings the forwarders’ perspective. He discusses the cost of manual processing and rework, and describes how Metro pilots technology before rolling it out across its operations.

The conversation also examines what AI can realistically do with shipment data. Both guests argue that reliable data, clear processes and human oversight matter more than simply adding another tool. For forwarders wondering where to start, their advice is to identify the cause of a margin leak first, then decide whether a process change or technology can fix it.