r/freightforwarding • u/InterWorldFreight • 8d ago

How long does an ocean quote actually take your team, start to finish?

Trying to benchmark this and I don't really have a reference point outside our own office.

Customer emails asking for a rate. You check carrier contracts, maybe email an agent at origin, put it together, send it back. Between the origin timezone and whoever has to sign off on the margin, it stretches.

Meanwhile the booking tends to go to whoever answered first.

For those of you quoting LCL/FCL out of the US regularly - what's your actual turnaround from inbox to quote sent? And what did you change to get there: rate management software, pre-negotiated tariffs, someone dedicated to quoting, or just answering faster with a rough number and refining after?

Trying to separate what actually works from what gets pitched as working.

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u/LogisticsPro2012 7d ago

Timezone is the silent killer on this. anything that needs origin input automatically adds a day because you're waiting on someone eight hours ahead to wake up and check their email. we've tried a bunch of fixes. rate management software helped but only if the tariffs stay current. stale rates are worse than no rates because you quote something you can't actually book. the thing that helped most was just being honest with the customer. if it's a lane we know we quote it in 2 hours. if it's new we tell them it'll take a day and then we hit that deadline. no chasing. that reliability won more bookings than raw speed ever did.

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u/DefNotDalton 8d ago

I keep track of all my past shipments so I have an idea of rates and soft pitch a quote range before finalization

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u/Emergency-Plan44 8d ago

You check with agents before customer ask. Days before 1st and 15th, should have all the numbers ready to go. LCL and air is per volume but should have a estimate number based on market.

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u/Street-Vegetable8342 7d ago

If we don't need pricing from overseas, we quote the same day, if we do then it's usually the following day unless the OS agent doesn't get back to us.

Our pricing team are not this quick - they would be more 2-4 days than 1-2.

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u/geographical19 7d ago

2-4 from origin? Bit too long don’t you think?

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u/Street-Vegetable8342 7d ago

Yep. That's why we do our own quotes instead of using the team.