The traditional way to buy freight is to email a handful of forwarders, describe the shipment slightly differently to each, and spend the next week reconciling replies that arrive in different formats with different scopes. Posting a single structured request removes most of that work — but only if the request carries what a forwarder needs to price accurately.
The short answer
A freight request is one structured specification sent to many providers at once, so the quotes come back against identical terms. To get accurate quotes you need origin and destination, cargo dimensions and weight, packaging type, the Incoterm, a ready date, and the commodity. Missing any of those forces a forwarder to guess or to come back with questions — which is what turns a two-day quote into a two-week one.
What to prepare before you post
| Detail | Why it changes the price |
|---|---|
| Origin and destination | Port pair or door addresses. Inland distance at either end can exceed the ocean cost on short lanes. |
| Weight and dimensions | Per package and total. Ocean prices on volume, air on chargeable weight — the greater of actual and volumetric. |
| Packaging | Pallets, cartons, crates, drums. Affects stackability, and stackability affects the price. |
| Commodity | Determines duty, whether the cargo is restricted, and whether it needs a specialist. "General cargo" is not a commodity. |
| Incoterm | Decides which legs the forwarder is quoting at all. |
| Ready date | Drives which sailings or flights are realistic, and whether a peak-season surcharge applies. |
| Special requirements | Temperature control, hazardous classification, insurance, delivery constraints such as tail lift or timed slots. |
If you do not know your volumetric weight or CBM yet, the CBM calculator and chargeable weight calculator will get you there from dimensions.
What happens after you post
- The request is matched to providers whose HQ country covers your origin or destination and whose services fit the shipment. On CargoLinked matching is by country and capability, so the forwarders who see it can actually serve the lane.
- Providers quote against the same specification. Because everyone answers the same brief, the replies are comparable without normalising them by hand.
- You compare and pick. Use the eleven-row worksheet in the best way to compare freight quotes — the differences that matter are usually free time and scope, not the headline rate.
- You book with one provider and the conversation moves into a single thread rather than five inboxes.
Mistakes that get a request ignored
- No dimensions. The most common one. Without dimensions nobody can price ocean LCL or air at all, so the request is skipped rather than answered.
- "General cargo". Forwarders need the commodity to check restrictions and duty. Vague descriptions read as inexperience and attract worse pricing.
- No Incoterm. The provider does not know whether they are quoting from the supplier's door or the origin port, so they either guess or ask — either way you lose days.
- An impossible ready date. "ASAP" with no date makes it impossible to check space or apply the right surcharges.
- Contact details that do not work. Obvious, and it still happens.
A worked example
Weak request: "Need a quote for 2 pallets from China to USA, general cargo, ASAP."
Strong request: "2 pallets, 120 × 100 × 145 cm each, 480 kg total, stackable, footwear (HS 6403). FCA Shanghai to door, Los Angeles 90021. Ready 25 August. No temperature requirement. Need free time of 7 days minimum at destination and an all-in door-to-door price with charges itemised."
The second version gets accurate, comparable quotes within a day. The first gets three follow-up emails and a week of delay.
When a request is the wrong tool
Being straight about it: for a single small parcel, an integrator such as DHL or FedEx is usually cheaper and faster than any forwarder quote, and posting a request is unnecessary. Requests earn their keep from roughly one pallet upward, on international lanes, and whenever customs is involved.
Ready to try it? Post a freight request — it is free, and matched providers quote against your specification rather than their own.
