Compare freight quotations without missing the scope

Start with one shipment brief

Imagine your procurement team receives three quotations for a shipment to Karachi. One says port-to-port, one includes delivery to your premises, and another lists only the main freight charge. Ranking those totals immediately would answer the wrong question: you would be comparing different services.

Give every provider the same version of the shipment brief. Include the packed measurements, gross weight, commodity, ready date, agreed Incoterm with its named place, and the collection and delivery points you want quoted. Mark estimates clearly. If the supplier changes the packing, send the revision to everyone rather than updating only the preferred provider.

Our RFQ preparation guide helps you assemble that brief. A comparison is only as useful as the assumptions behind it.

Build a comparison you can actually use

Use the following headings in a spreadsheet. Record “not confirmed” instead of treating a missing line as free. Keep the provider’s original currency alongside any internal conversion.

Keep freight service charges separate from goods value and any duties or taxes when constructing your own landed-cost budget. A freight quote should not be silently treated as a complete landed-cost calculation.

A lower price can conceal a different boundary

Illustrative arithmetic only—not a rate offer: Offer A shows USD 900 and excludes delivery. Offer B shows USD 1,050 and includes delivery. If a comparable delivery quote for A is USD 200, A becomes USD 1,100 for that scope. B is then USD 50 lower on the items compared. That conclusion is valid only if all other assumptions match.

If the delivery cost is unknown, leave the total unresolved. Do not invent an allowance to make an offer look complete. Similarly, a currency conversion is a budgeting assumption, not a promise about the exchange rate that will appear on an invoice.

Ask what could change the invoice

Maersk’s rate-request terms identify possible additional charges, exchange-rate effects and cargo-acceptance conditions. They illustrate why the actual terms matter; they are not Catalyst’s tariff or a rulebook for every provider. Read the carrier’s rate-request terms.

Ask your provider which quoted items are fixed, estimated, conditional or payable to another party. Request the applicable free-time allowance and charging terms where relevant. Clarify who handles any exception and how approval for additional services is obtained.

Useful questions include: “What is excluded at destination?”, “Does this scope end at the terminal or my delivery address?”, and “What must remain unchanged for this quotation to apply?” Specific questions are easier to resolve than asking whether everything is included.

Make the decision explainable

Write a short decision note: selected offer, comparable scope, unresolved conditions and reason for selection. Price may be decisive, but the required delivery window, handoffs and clarity of the offer also belong in the decision.

Before accepting, get the final agreed scope in writing. If anything changes between enquiry and booking, ask for confirmation against the revised brief. A quotation comparison supports a decision; it does not itself reserve capacity or confirm cargo acceptance.

Should I always choose an “all-in” quote?

Choose a quote whose boundaries you understand. Ask what “all-in” covers and what it excludes. The label alone does not tell you whether two quotations cover the same movement.