GLOSSARY
Twenty-two terms a freight quotation lives or dies on — each defined the way a pricing head would explain it, not the way a textbook would.
22 TERMS · PLAIN ENGLISH · QUOTE-DESK CONTEXT INCLUDED
A customer's request for a freight price. In forwarding it arrives in any shape — a formal tender document, a forwarded email, a forty-line Excel, or a WhatsApp message reading 'need rate urgent'. The desk's job starts the moment one lands.
What the carrier, co-loader or partner charges you for a leg of the shipment. The quote's cost base — its source and validity decide whether your sell rate is standing on solid ground.
The price you quote your customer: buy rate plus your margin, with surcharges complete. The difference between buy and sell across all legs is the shipment's gross margin.
The minimum acceptable margin on a lane or account, below which a quote needs explicit senior approval. A floor turns discounting from an accident into a decision.
How long a rate can be relied on. FCL rates typically hold to the 15th or end of month, LCL to month-end, air rates 3–7 days — and carrier spot rates can be as short as 3 hours. A quote's validity should never silently outlive its buy rate's.
A rate for immediate shipment at current market price, as opposed to a contract rate. Carrier spot platforms (Maersk Spot, CMA CGM SpotOn, Hapag-Lloyd Quick Quotes Spot) quote instantly but with short validity windows.
A rate agreed with a carrier for a period (often quarterly or yearly), sometimes specific to a named customer. Lives in rate cards; the desk's job is keeping lookups fast and validity current.
A rate that applies regardless of commodity, used when cargo mix doesn't justify commodity-specific pricing. Common in consolidations and NVOCC tariffs.
A carrier's across-the-board rate increase on a trade lane, announced with an effective date. GRIs are why last month's rate card quietly stops being true.
A temporary surcharge applied during high-demand periods. One more line the quote must carry — and time correctly.
The ocean fuel surcharge, typically a meaningful percentage of base freight and revised as fuel prices move. A quote drafted on last week's BAF donates the difference.
A surcharge compensating carriers for exchange-rate movements between tariff currency and operating currencies.
Charges for handling containers at the terminal — levied at both origin and destination, set locally. The classic 'missing line' in incomplete quotes.
The LCL charging basis: freight charged per tonne or per cubic metre, whichever yields more. The standard conversion treats 1 CBM as 1,000 kg for LCL (and 167 kg per CBM in air).
In air freight, the greater of actual weight and volumetric weight. Volumetric weight = L×W×H (cm) ÷ 6,000 under the IATA standard, or ÷ 5,000 for most express services.
IATA rate tiers — typically −45, +45, +100, +250, +300, +500, +1000 kg — where the per-kg rate drops as weight rises. Sometimes quoting the next slab's minimum beats the actual weight's rate: the desk should check both.
The trade terms (EXW, FCA, FOB, CIF, DAP, DDP…) that decide which legs and charges belong in your quote at all. Quoting DAP on an FOB enquiry isn't a discount problem — it's a scope problem.
Non-Vessel Operating Common Carrier: issues its own house bills and tariffs like a carrier, but owns no vessels. Many forwarders buy from NVOCCs on lanes where they lack direct carrier contracts.
A co-loader accepts other forwarders' LCL cargo into its consolidation ('consol'). For lanes you don't serve directly, co-loader buy rates are a standard rate source — with their own validity and cut-off rhythms.
India's licensed customs broker (formally 'Customs Broker' under CBLR 2018). CHA charges appear as line items inside Indian freight quotations — a locally-complete quote includes them.
The share of received RFQs that get any answer at all. Industry mystery-shopper studies found most RFQs to large forwarders never receive a quote — which makes coverage the cheapest win-rate lever a desk has.
The share of quotes accepted without a negotiation round. Rising acceptance means pricing is calibrated to the market; falling means you're leaving either margin or volume on the table.
See every one of these concepts running live in a working quote desk.
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