For Shippers
How to Get a Freight Quote: What to Prepare and Where to Ask
What a carrier or broker needs to quote your freight accurately, where shippers can ask for quotes, what a quote should spell out, and how to compare them. No invented rates.
What spot and contract freight rates are, when each one fits, how they work together in a routing guide, and how to judge a spot bid against a contract rate. No market numbers, just how to decide.
FreightBidder Team
FreightBidder
Short answer: a spot rate is the price for moving one load, agreed for that shipment now. A contract rate is a price agreed in advance for a set lane, volume and period. Spot suits irregular freight and one-offs; contract suits steady lanes where you want a predictable price; most shippers end up using both.
Neither is cheaper by default. A contract rate can sit above the market on a day when carriers are short of freight, and a spot rate can sit well above it when trucks are scarce. What differs is how much certainty you buy, and how much work you do each time.
What a carrier or broker needs to quote your freight accurately, where shippers can ask for quotes, what a quote should spell out, and how to compare them. No invented rates.
When a box truck is the right equipment, what to put in the load post so carriers can bid properly, where to find box truck carriers, and the factors that move the price. No invented rates.
A shipper checklist for comparing carrier bids: what the rate includes, who the carrier is, what the insurance and safety record show, and when the lowest bid is not the best one.
Post a load or bid on freight — free to start.
Get started freeA common set-up is a routing guide: a ranked list of contracted carriers for each lane. A load is tendered to the first carrier; if that carrier declines, it goes to the next. When every contracted carrier declines, the load goes to the spot market. That is where spot rates earn their place: they cover what the contract could not. See routing guide.
No. When capacity is loose, spot rates can come in below a contract rate set months earlier. When capacity is tight, they can come in well above. That is why shippers with steady volume often keep a contract for the core lanes and use spot for the rest, rather than choosing one for everything.
On a freight bidding platform you post a load and carriers bid on it, which is a spot transaction. The bids you receive show what carriers are willing to accept on that lane now, which can be a useful input when you are deciding whether a contract rate is worth committing to. FreightBidder cannot promise that any particular load draws bids; that depends on the lane, the equipment and the rate.
If you are not sure where to put a load in the first place, Where Can Shippers Post Freight Loads? compares the main options.
Post your first load free and see what carriers bid.
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