Freight quoting software turns a shipment request into a priced quote, and ideally a recommended supplier, in minutes instead of hours. The most reliable way to choose one is simple: give each shortlisted tool the same set of your own past orders and measure how close its prices land to what those shipments really cost. Everything else on this checklist comes second to that test.
This guide covers what the different types of freight quoting software actually do, the questions worth asking a vendor, and how to run a fair accuracy test on your own lanes before you commit.
What Freight Quoting Software Does
Behind every quote is the same chain of steps: work out which suppliers cover the lane, get a current rate, choose a supplier, apply margin and send the number to the customer. Done by hand, that means phone calls, emails, spreadsheets and re-keyed figures, each a chance for delay or error. Why manual freight quoting breaks down walks through each step in detail.
Automated freight quoting software takes over some or all of that chain. Tools broadly fall into three groups, and knowing which kind you're looking at explains most of the differences in price and accuracy:
- Rate management tools store your contracted rate cards and look up the matching rate. Fast and predictable, but only as good as the rate cards, and they struggle with spot quotes and lanes you don't have a contract for.
- Market-data quoting tools estimate a price from rates pooled across many companies. Useful as a benchmark, but the number reflects the market average, not your negotiated supplier rates.
- Models trained on your own history learn from your past orders and suppliers what a given job actually costs you, and which suppliers tend to win and deliver on that lane.
The Buyer's Checklist
Whichever type you're considering, these are the questions that separate a tool that will actually be used from one that sits beside the spreadsheet.
| Question to ask | Good answer | Red flag |
|---|---|---|
| Where do the prices come from? | Your own order and supplier history, or your contracted rates | A vague answer about "AI" with no clear data source |
| How is accuracy measured? | Average price error against real shipment cost, on your own past orders | Only testimonials, or accuracy quoted on someone else's data |
| Does it recommend suppliers, or just a price? | Ranked suppliers per quote, with a price for each | A single number with no supplier behind it |
| Which modes and lanes does it cover? | Every mode, region and vehicle type you actually quote | Road-only or domestic-only when you quote sea, air or international |
| Is margin applied consistently? | Margin set by rule, the same for whoever is quoting | Margin left to whoever happens to be quoting that day |
| Does your data stay yours? | Not pooled or shared with other customers | Your rates feed a shared model your competitors also use |
| Can you trial it on your own data? | A free trial set up on your historical orders | A demo on sample data only |
How to Run a Fair Accuracy Test
Vendor accuracy claims are only meaningful on your own lanes. A simple backtest takes a few days and removes most of the guesswork:
- Pull two to three months of completed orders where you know the final shipment cost.
- Give each shortlisted tool the same order details: origin, destination, mode, vehicle or equipment type, weight and dates.
- Record the price each tool returns, alongside what your own team quoted at the time.
- For each order, calculate the percentage difference between the quoted price and the real cost, then average it across all orders.
- Look beyond the average: check the worst misses and the lanes you quote most often, since that's where mispricing costs the most.
This is the same test used in Anteam's own pilot: three months of live orders with a UK freight forwarder, with every tool quoting the same lanes.
Speed Matters, but Not on Its Own
Most freight quoting software is pitched on speed, and turning a quote around in minutes rather than hours does win work. But a fast quote that's 20% off the real cost either loses the job when it's too high or loses margin when it's too low. Treat speed as table stakes and judge tools on accuracy, supplier recommendations and whether your team will trust the number enough to send it.
Watch for Hidden Costs
- Setup and data work: who cleans and loads your historical orders and rate data, and is that included?
- Per-quote or usage pricing: costs that rise with every quote can add up quickly as volume grows.
- Rate card upkeep: lookup tools are only accurate while someone keeps every rate card current.
- Workflow fit: ask how quotes get from the tool to your customer and into your existing systems, so nobody ends up re-keying the number anyway.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is automated freight quoting?
Automated freight quoting is software that turns a shipment request into a priced quote without someone chasing rates, picking a supplier and re-keying the numbers by hand. Depending on the tool, prices come from your contracted rate cards, pooled market data, or a model trained on your own order history.
How accurate should freight quoting software be?
Accurate enough to beat what your team quotes today, measured on your own lanes. The fair test is average price error against the real shipment cost on a set of past orders. In a live 3-month pilot with a UK freight forwarder, Anteam Quote averaged 3.8% price error against 20% from a commercial alternative on the same orders.
Does freight quoting software replace the pricing team?
It replaces the repetitive parts: chasing suppliers for current rates, looking up history and re-typing numbers into a template. People still own customer relationships, unusual shipments and the commercial judgement on margin.
Should freight quoting software use our data or market data?
Pooled market data is useful for a broad benchmark, but it reflects an industry average rather than your negotiated supplier rates. If you quote across your own supplier network, a tool trained on your own history will usually price closer to what a job actually costs you. Either way, check whether your data is shared with other customers.
Test Anteam Quote™ on Your Own Lanes
Anteam Quote™ is freight quoting software trained only on your own historical order and supplier data. Every quote returns up to five ranked supplier recommendations, each with a price estimate, across road, sea and air. Anteam sets it up on your data free of charge for a 1-month, no-obligation trial. Book a demo to run the accuracy test above on your own orders.
Related reading: the cost of a manual freight quote, why manual freight quoting breaks down, and AI quoting for freight forwarders for a use-case walkthrough.