Comparing freight quotes only by the headline freight rate can be misleading. A useful comparison should consider total transport cost, transit time, validity and which origin, destination and local charges are included.
Fields to compare
- Provider or freight forwarder
- Freight amount
- Origin charges
- Destination charges
- Fuel or BAF surcharges
- Documentation fees
- Pickup and delivery
- Transit time
- ETD and quote validity
Normalize the total cost
Convert each quote into the same currency, then calculate one comparable total. Keep transit time as a separate measure so the cheapest option does not automatically appear to be the best operational choice.
The ImportVista Freight Quote Comparison includes a dashboard, automatic price ranking and a configurable price/transit score.
Use a repeatable process
Keeping historical quotes in the same workbook makes it easier to benchmark providers and spot changes in rates over time. For a full logistics toolkit, see the ImportVista PRO Pack.