A freight quote is a price with a shelf life. The number on the page is only meaningful for as long as the carrier's rate, the exchange rate, the surcharges and the equipment position behind it stay put, and every one of those moves on its own schedule. A forwarder who sets validity carelessly ends up honouring a price that no longer covers the cost. A shipper who ignores it ends up booking against a rate that quietly expired. This guide is for forwarders deciding how to set, word and manage quote validity, and it is equally useful for shippers who want to read a quote the way the forwarder wrote it.
Why a quote has an expiry at all
Your price is built from costs you do not control. The carrier or airline gives you a buy rate for a window. Surcharges are reset on the carrier's calendar. Currency moves daily. Space on a given sailing or flight is finite and is sold to whoever books first. If a quote never expired, you would be giving the customer a free option: they could hold your price while the market moved, and take it only if it turned out to be cheap relative to alternatives. The validity date is how you stop giving that option away.
It also protects the shipper, though less obviously. A dated quote tells them how long the comparison they are running is actually valid. Two quotes with different validity dates are not directly comparable, and one with no date at all is an invitation to a dispute at invoice time.
Spot rates and contract rates: different clocks
The word "rate" covers two quite different arrangements, and validity means something different in each.
| Type | What it usually is | How validity works in practice |
|---|---|---|
| Spot or ad hoc quote | A price for a specific shipment, or a short window, at today's market | Short. Often days, sometimes a single sailing or week, tied to the buy rate you were given and how fast that market moves |
| Contract or fixed-term rate | A rate agreed for a period or a committed volume, usually with a written schedule of terms | Long, set by the agreement itself. Validity is the contract period, and the terms say what can change inside it (typically surcharges, sometimes a review clause) |
| Tender or bid response | A price submitted against a shipper's RFQ or tender | Whatever the tender document states, often much longer than a spot quote. Read it before you respond |
There is no universal number of days for any of these. Carriers publish their own rate validity terms on their own quotes and tariffs, and they vary by trade, by season and by carrier. Your validity window is bounded by the shortest of the things it depends on. If the buy rate you hold expires on the 15th, quoting the customer a price valid to the 30th means you are underwriting the difference yourself. Our guide to rate negotiation with carriers covers how to get validity windows that match what you sell.
Your exposure sits between two dates
The useful way to think about validity is as the gap between two dates: when your buy rate expires and when your customer's quote expires. If the customer's date is later than yours, you carry the risk in between. If it is earlier or equal, the carrier's market risk stays with the carrier's rate.
- Quote validity shorter than or equal to the buy rate validity: you are covered on the base rate, though not necessarily on surcharges or currency.
- Quote validity longer than the buy rate validity: you are quoting a price for which you do not yet have a cost. Sometimes that is a deliberate commercial bet on winning the freight and re-buying later. Make sure it is a decision, not an accident.
- Quote valid but shipment date far out: a shipper may accept inside validity for a departure weeks away. Decide whether your validity means "accept by this date" or "ship by this date", and say which. They are different promises.
Surcharges and currency inside the window
Base freight is often the steadiest part of a price. Surcharges are where a valid quote goes wrong. Bunker and fuel adjustments, peak season surcharges, general rate increases, congestion and war risk charges can be announced or changed by the carrier on their own notice periods, which may or may not fall inside your quote's validity. Our guides to freight surcharges and peak season surcharges explain how each one is built and when it tends to appear.
The practical question for each surcharge is: is it in the number, or is it "at time of shipment"? A quote that says "all in" but then adds "subject to surcharges at time of shipment" is not all in. Decide per line.
Currency is the same problem in another form. If you buy in one currency and sell in another, your validity window is also an exchange-rate exposure. Options include quoting in the currency you pay the carrier in, stating the exchange rate used and the date it was taken, or shortening validity for volatile pairs. Whichever you choose, put the currency on the face of the quote every time. A bare "1,850" invites the wrong assumption.
What "subject to space and equipment" really means
Two phrases appear on a large share of freight quotes. They are legitimate, and they are also where customers feel misled, so it pays to be precise about what you mean.
Subject to space and equipment: the price is offered but the capacity is not confirmed. Space on the sailing or flight, and the availability of the container type or ULD, is sold when a booking is accepted by the carrier, not when you send a quote. A shipper who accepts your quote on a busy lane has an agreed price and no guaranteed slot until the booking is confirmed. This is a real feature of the business, not a technicality, but you should say so in plain words: "Price valid to 30 Nov. Space and equipment are not guaranteed until the carrier confirms the booking."
Subject to surcharges at time of shipment: the price includes the surcharges known today, and any surcharge in force on the actual shipping date is added. This is defensible if the shipper can see which surcharges are already included and is told what could be added. It is where disputes come from when it is a single vague line covering everything. Better wording lists the surcharges that are included, names the ones that can vary, and states who decides. If a surcharge applies at shipment, the customer should be able to point to something you told them in advance.
A note on legal footing. Forwarders usually operate under standard trading conditions, such as those published by national forwarding associations, and those conditions may or may not address quotations. In the BIFA 2021 standard trading conditions text I read for this guide, I did not find a clause that sets quotation validity, so the expiry generally has to be stated on the quote itself. Read your own conditions, and if they are silent, say what you need to say on the quote.
How your trading conditions and your quote interact is worth understanding before a dispute, not after. Our guide to what your forwarder's trading conditions actually say is a good starting point. Nothing here is legal advice, and the enforceability of any quote wording depends on your jurisdiction and your contract.
What belongs on the face of a quote
The test for a quote is whether someone who has never spoken to you could accept it, ship against it and be invoiced without any surprise. That takes fewer lines than most quotes carry, and none of them should be buried in a footnote.
- Validity date. A calendar date, not "30 days" or "this week". Add the time zone if you sell across regions, and say whether the date means accept-by or ship-by.
- Currency for every line, and the exchange rate basis if any line is converted.
- Scope: the origin and destination points, port-to-port or door-to-door, and the Incoterm the price assumes. See 7 Things to Check Before You Book a Freight Quote for the shipper's view of the same list.
- Inclusions and exclusions, line by line: origin charges, destination charges, customs, duty, insurance, terminal handling, documentation.
- Surcharges: which are included today, which may be added, and which are excluded altogether.
- Free time: detention and demurrage days, or the equivalent, at origin and destination, and what happens after. It often decides whether the cheaper quote is cheaper.
- The cargo the price is based on: commodity, piece count, weight, dimensions, container type, and whether it is dangerous goods or temperature controlled. A quote is only valid for the cargo it describes.
- Cutoffs: documentation, cargo receipt and vessel or flight cutoff, where the price depends on a specific departure.
- Space and equipment status: confirmed, or not guaranteed until booking.
- Anything that voids the quote: for example a change in weight or volume beyond a stated tolerance.
Being this specific has a side effect worth having: it tends to win business. Shippers who compare several quotes reward the one they can read without follow-up questions. Our guide to responding to an RFQ makes the same point from the tender side.
Choosing the validity length
A short validity date is not automatically safer. If it is shorter than the shipper's decision cycle, you will spend your time requoting, and some customers will read it as pressure. A long one carries the market risk we described above. A workable approach:
- Start from the earliest expiry among your buy rate, the surcharge notices you know about and the shipment date.
- Add what the customer realistically needs to decide, including their internal approvals.
- Where the two collide, shorten the validity or price in the risk explicitly, and say so.
- Keep the date consistent across the quotes you send for the same enquiry, so the customer can compare them.
The customer who accepts on validity plus one
It will happen: an email arrives the morning after the quote lapsed, saying "yes, go ahead". You have three honest options, and one approach to avoid.
- Check the market before answering. If the buy rate, surcharges and space are unchanged, honouring the quote costs nothing and buys goodwill. Say that you are doing it as a courtesy and note the date.
- Requote at the new level and explain the difference. Show what moved: base rate, a surcharge or currency. A customer who sees the reason usually accepts. Do this the same day so the delay is not blamed on you.
- Offer a short extension in writing if you can confirm your own cost, with a new expiry date on the extension.
The approach to avoid is silence or a vague "let me see", which lets the customer assume the old price still applies and creates the invoice dispute you were trying to prevent. Whatever you decide, put it in writing before the cargo moves.
Requoting without losing the customer
A requote feels like admitting the first price was wrong. It is not. It is what a dated quote is for. What loses customers is the way it is done.
- Lead with the reason, not the new number: "the carrier's rate for December sailings changed on the 1st".
- Show the delta by line, so the customer can see what is base freight, what is a surcharge and what is currency.
- Offer a path, such as an alternative sailing, a different routing or a consolidated option that keeps the total near the original.
- Send it quickly, ideally before the customer has to ask.
- Do not use validity as a sales tactic. Artificial urgency ("must book today") damages trust, and shippers comparing several quotes notice.
Repeated requotes on the same enquiry are a signal to revisit how you set validity, not just a cost of doing business. If the same customers keep landing on day validity plus one, your window is probably shorter than their decision cycle. Your pricing and margin policy also matters here: the guide to how to price a freight quote covers how much cushion to build in, and credit control covers what happens when the price you honoured meets a customer who pays late.
How validity works on CargoLinked
On CargoLinked, a quote submitted against a shipper's freight request carries a validity date, and that date must be at least three days out at the time of submission. A pending quote that passes its validity date is marked expired. Expiry frees the forwarder to quote that request again, and the shipper is prompted that the quote has lapsed. Nothing about that changes the advice above: state your conditions on the quote and check the buy rate before you choose the date.
Shippers post requests on the requests board, and forwarders can browse open requests there. You can also search logistics companies by country, city and lane in the CargoLinked directory. Listings are self-published, so check the credentials of any company you deal with.
Checklist before you send a quote
- Do I hold a buy rate that runs at least as long as this quote?
- Is the validity a calendar date, and is it clear whether it means accept-by or ship-by?
- Is the currency stated on every line, with an exchange rate basis where I convert?
- Have I listed which surcharges are included and which can be added?
- Is "subject to space and equipment" written in plain words, not left implied?
- Do I state the cargo details and free time the price is based on?
- Do I know what I will do if the customer accepts the day after?
This guide describes common trade practice in general terms. Carrier rate validity, surcharge notice periods and the legal effect of quote wording vary by carrier, trade and jurisdiction, and this is not legal advice. Check the carrier's own terms and your own trading conditions before relying on any wording here.
