Estimate freight or postal rates and record shipment costs and weights.

“Estimate freight or postal rates and record shipment costs and weights.” is a core task performed by Cargo and Freight Agents. Among the occupation's 24 rated tasks, workers place it 18th by importance (#7 most important). About 76% of workers say it is relevant to their job.

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

Work activities this task rolls up to

O*NET groups concrete tasks into broader work activities shared across many occupations.

• Determine values or prices of goods or services. in Making Decisions and Solving Problems

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E1. Direct exposure — a language model could plausibly cut the time to do this task by at least half.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 1.00. Automation potential label: T3.

Other tasks in this occupation

• Negotiate and arrange transport of goods with shipping or freight companies. · importance 3.9
• Determine method of shipment and prepare bills of lading, invoices, and other shipping documents. · importance 3.7
• Track delivery progress of shipments. · importance 3.6
• Prepare manifests showing numbers of airplane passengers and baggage, mail, and freight weights, transmitting data to destinations. · importance 3.5
• Advise clients on transportation and payment methods. · importance 3.5
• Arrange insurance coverage for goods. · importance 3.5
• Install straps, braces, and padding to loads to prevent shifting or damage during shipment. · importance 3.4
• Keep records of all goods shipped, received, and stored. · importance 3.3
• Notify consignees, passengers, or customers of freight or baggage arrival and arrange for delivery. · importance 3.3
• Check import or export documentation to determine cargo contents and use tariff coding system to classify goods according to fee or tariff group. · importance 3.3
• Coordinate and supervise activities of workers engaged in packing and shipping merchandise. · importance 3.2
• Contact vendors or claims adjustment departments to resolve shipment problems or contact service depots to arrange for repairs. · importance 3.2
• Inspect and count items received and check them against invoices or other documents, recording shortages and rejecting damaged goods. · importance 3.2
• Route received goods to first available flight or to appropriate storage areas or departments, using forklifts, hand trucks, or other equipment. · importance 3.1

See all tasks on the Cargo and Freight Agents page.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-task-8194,
  title  = {Estimate freight or postal rates and record shipment costs and weights.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-8194}
}