Describe the shipment once, and let every quote answer the same question
Three quotes for the same pallet usually describe three different pallets. Write the description once, send the same one to everybody, and the numbers become comparable. Four steps, a PDF under your own name, and nothing leaves this browser.
Why the invoice never matches the quote
A quote is one number. An invoice is a list. The gap between them is made of three things the shipper controls and usually gets asked about too late: the dimensions, the freight class, and the accessorials nobody mentioned until the truck was at the door.
Carriers dimension and weigh freight now, routinely, and a reweigh against declared dimensions is the argument you cannot win after the fact. Declaring everything up front costs nothing, prices it into the quote instead of onto the invoice, and has the useful side effect of making three bidders answer the same question.
Site type is the expensive field
Carriers classify by access, not by the sign on the building. A business run from a home, a farm, a school, a storage unit: all residential or limited access, all billed after the fact when nobody declared them.
It computes density, not class
Density is arithmetic and belongs to nobody. Freight classes are published by the NMFTA, and a class guessed from a website is how a reclass happens. Declare yours, or make the bidders state theirs in writing.
1. Who is asking
The accessorials that show up on invoices
Every one of these is in the form because it is a common line on an invoice that was absent from the quote. None of them is a carrier being difficult; each is real work somebody has to do.
- Liftgate
- No dock, or freight that cannot be rolled off by hand.
- Inside pickup or delivery
- Past the threshold rather than at the curb.
- Appointment required
- Scheduling call before arrival.
- Call before arrival
- Notification without a fixed appointment.
- Limited access
- Schools, military sites, prisons, camps, places of worship.
- Residential classification
- Carriers classify by access, not by the sign on the door.
- Sort and segregate
- Freight separated by SKU, store or purchase order on arrival.
- Protect from freezing
- Seasonal, and quoted separately.
- Hazardous materials
- Requires proper shipping name, UN number and paperwork.
- Tarping or special handling
- Anything the carrier has to cover or handle apart.
- Over-length piece
- Length thresholds vary by carrier and are a frequent surprise.
- Loading or unloading time
- State how long the driver will be held, before it becomes detention.
The eight questions, and what each one prevents
1. Confirm that the quote includes every accessorial listed in this document, and list anything you have excluded.
The single largest source of invoice disputes in LTL. An accessorial discovered afterwards is a rebill you cannot argue with.
2. State your reweigh and re-inspection policy, and what happens if the dimensions differ from those declared here.
Carriers measure freight now. Knowing the policy before shipping turns a surprise into an arithmetic check.
3. Confirm the freight class you are quoting on, and tell us if it differs from the class declared in this document.
A quote at one class and an invoice at another is the second largest source of disputes, and it is entirely avoidable in advance.
4. Name the carrier, or the shortlist of carriers, the quote is based on.
Two quotes on the same carrier are one quote. Knowing the network tells you what the transit time and the claims experience will actually be.
5. State the transit time in business days, and whether it is guaranteed or an estimate.
Standard transit is an estimate with no remedy attached. If the date matters, that difference is the whole quote.
6. State the cargo liability limit that applies to this freight, per pound and in total.
Liability is limited by class and commodity, and it is very often far below the value of the goods.
7. If you are a broker, give your MC number so we can check your authority and bond in the federal register.
It takes a minute to check, brokers expect the question, and it is the one check that separates a company from a website.
8. State payment terms and what the invoice will look like, line by line.
A quote is one number. An invoice is a list. Asking for the list in advance is how the two end up matching.
Reading the answers
Compare the answers side by side rather than reading the quotes end to end. Accessorials first, then the class each bidder is quoting on, then the transit commitment. Most of the apparent price gap resolves in those three lines, and what is left is a real difference in what you are buying.
What decides a class is on freight class and dimensions, what moves the price is on LTL shipping cost, and the accessorial that surprises people most has its own page under liftgate service.