Why Quoting is Broken for Freight Forwarders (And How to Fix It)

For many freight forwarders, quoting isn’t just another task—it’s the gateway to winning business and protecting margins. Yet for small and mid-sized forwarders, the quoting process is often slow, manual, and riddled with inefficiencies that cost time, customers, and profit.

Transaction-Based vs. Contract-Based RFQs

RFQs in freight forwarding typically fall into two buckets:

• Transaction-Based (Spot Quoting): High-volume, time-sensitive quotes where shippers expect fast responses.
• Contract-Based (Bids & Tenders): Lower-volume, longer-term agreements negotiated over weeks or months.

Most small and mid-sized forwarders operate in the transaction-based world—where speed and accuracy are critical. But their quoting operations aren’t built for it.

The Reality of Spot Quoting

When a shipper requests a quote, inside sales teams and pricing reps scramble to pull buy rates from Excel sheets, rate management software systems, and informal tribal knowledge. They then consolidate rates—often in different formats and units—apply a margin, and send the quote back. This process, repeated for every request, can take hours and is prone to delays and errors.

Why It’s Broken

• Data Lives in Silos: Rates are scattered across Excel sheets and multiple systems, with no single source of truth.
• Complex Decision Trees: Air vs. ocean vs. ground? Door-to-door or port-to-door? Import or export? Each quote requires dozens of micro-decisions, each adding time.
• Manual Work Multiplies Errors: Many teams re-enter data multiple times across systems, doubling the chance of mistakes.
• Slow Responses Mean Lost business: Shippers often award freight to the first competitive quote they receive. Long turnaround times leave you out of the running.

How Slow Quoting Erodes Profitability

Gross margins, operating margins, and top-line revenue are critical for freight forwarders, yet inefficient spot quoting directly undermines all three. Without analytics on historical buy/sell rates and win/loss trends, teams are often flying blind—leaving money on the table by underpricing or overpricing quotes. This lack of visibility erodes gross margins and makes forwarders less competitive. Meanwhile, the manual, labor-intensive quoting process adds significant overhead per quote, putting pressure on operating margins. And with slow turnaround times, forwarders risk losing business to faster competitors—dragging down top-line growth.

The Path Forward

The solution? Smarter quoting workflows.

• Consolidate siloed data across Excel, RMS, and TMS systems.
• Automate rate pulls and calculations to generate quotes in minutes, not hours.
• Use AI to analyze historical win/loss rates, margin profiles on specific lanes, and external factors like port closures or real-world events that could impact costs or timelines. Get proactive recommendations on which quote requests to prioritize—so your team spends time where it counts.

The forwarders who embrace automation today will win more business tomorrow—and protect their margins while doing it.

Ready to modernize your quoting process? Learn how Cervo AI helps freight forwarders quote faster and smarter.