How instant freight quotes are calculated

A freight quote is an estimate of what the cost of shipping will be based on the information you provide, including pickup and delivery location, date, and commodity type. The freight quote is a rate that the shipper and carrier or broker agree to for a freight service. The best partners provide to-the-dollar freight quotes where the final invoice matches the initial quote.

Shippers can get freight quotes for a variety of commodity and equipment types, including full truckload (FTL) and less-than-truckload (LTL) shipments. Most FTL instant freight quotes are for dry van, refrigerated, or flatbed trucks.

Every provider has a different way of calculating the cost of freight, although they often use some combination of the date, weight, and lane to determine a rate. According to the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics, traditional carriers price their bids based on a rudimentary cost-plus model. Digital freight networks like Convoy use machine learning (ML) to collect more comprehensive quotes and generate more accurate freight prices.

Convoy’s ML models analyze millions of data points, including historical shipment records, real-time volume, capacity indicators, seasonality shifts, shipment time of day, macroeconomic factors, regional carrier density, carrier quality, and more. By using ML for freight pricing, Convoy is able to instantly respond to tender requests and generate rates that represent a fair, accurate reflection of the freight market.

Many carriers and brokers now offer quotes through online freight calculators. While online quotes may show attractive prices up front, the final invoice may exceed the original online freight quote. Here are a few considerations for vetting whether the price you see is the price you’ll actually get.

Is this freight rate guaranteed?

Some freight providers provide rates using pricing models that are prone to error. For example, when a broker prices based on what they paid for the truck last week plus a markup, it may be hard for them to stand by their quote if truckload rates suddenly rise due to an unexpected demand surge.

We have heard shippers share stories of carriers and brokers requesting higher fees to cover loads, after they had already agreed on a lower price. One customer said he experienced hikes of 40 percent above the initial online quotes when working with other freight providers.

When calculating freight rates, look for a provider that generates pricing based on real-time data and reflects accurate market rates. Seek out carriers or brokers that guarantee coverage at the rate they quote.

Convoy uses sophisticated technology to price to the minute on market information. Once we make an offer, we don’t reprice our quote. Since we stand by our original prices, our customers are never surprised by a discrepancy between a quote and their invoice.

Will the carrier or broker give back or fall off the load?

When you book your online shipment, make sure the provider is guaranteeing coverage for it. A carrier or broker may have a driver available, but if that driver falls off, they might come back to you and return the load. This causes a last-minute scramble for coverage and often means you pay much more.

Unfortunately, most freight companies don’t offer a coverage guarantee when they provide a quote, leaving shippers vulnerable to fall-offs.

Convoy guarantees coverage for every load we bid on. Our massive carrier base and technology enable us to guarantee load coverage at the price we quote. This provides a level of peace of mind that most other freight companies can’t match.

Will my shipment be serviced on time?

If the rate you see looks like a great deal, make sure the carrier or broker can service the shipment as agreed to. Everyone on a transportation team knows the headache and wasted time that comes from tracking down missing shipments and rescheduling missed appointments. No one enjoys informing a customer that their shipment will be late.

The best freight partners use GPS tracking and offer real-time supply chain visibility to proactively monitor shipments and identify potential issues before they occur.

Convoy offers 24/7 visibility into every load we arrange. We provide total transparency, from initial tender to final delivery, so you don’t have to waste time tracking down trucks. With shipment statuses that are accurate to the minute, your transportation team can operate more smoothly knowing that your shipment is on schedule.

Interested in learning more about Convoy’s full truckload freight services and technology? Start here.

With Convoy, enterprise shippers can get instantly bookable rates. Convoy generates pricing in real time using machine learning algorithms that account for current market conditions and shipment data to give you the best possible quote at a rate that we can guarantee. Calculate real-time quotes for dry van truckload and refrigerated freight by simply dropping in your pickup and delivery location. Provide additional details to increase the accuracy of the quote before booking.

The price you’re quoted is the price you pay, guaranteed. Convoy will never come back to you and ask for more money on a spot load. We also guarantee 100 percent coverage, which includes automatically adjusting carrier assignments on your behalf in the rare event of a fall-off at no additional cost.

Compare your freight quotes to other providers

Once you use Convoy’s freight quote calculator to generate a rate for your shipment, you can compare it to the rates you have in-hand. The instant quote for a Convoy spot shipment is accurate up to the minute and reflects real-time market conditions and the specific requirements of the shipment.