Freight Quotation Template: What a Freight Quote Must Include

A freight quotation template gives every quote the same structure: who the shipment is for, the route and cargo, the Incoterm, every charge split into origin, freight, destination and surcharges, the validity date, and what is excluded. Forwarders in Dubai and Saudi Arabia lose margin and customers when one of those is missing.

Below is what each part should contain, a template you can copy, the mistakes to avoid, and how an accepted quote should become a job.

What a freight quote must contain

A customer reads your quote to answer three questions: what am I paying for, what am I not paying for, and how long does this price hold? Every section below answers one of them.

1. Header and reference

• Your quote number, issue date and expiry date.
• Customer name, contact and their own reference (PO or inquiry number).
• The person who prepared the quote.

2. Shipment details

• Mode: sea FCL, sea LCL, air, or road (for example Jebel Ali to Riyadh by truck).
• Origin and destination, named precisely: the port, airport or door address, not just the country.
• Cargo: description, HS code if known, packages, gross weight, volume, dimensions, and whether it is dangerous goods, temperature controlled or oversized.
• Equipment: 20' or 40' container type, pallet count, or chargeable weight for air.
• Ready date and any required delivery date.

3. Incoterm and scope

State the Incoterm and the named place, with the version, for example "FOB Ningbo, Incoterms® 2020". The ICC recommends contracts refer to the 2020 rules. The term tells the customer which costs sit with their supplier and which sit with them. Your quote should only cover the buyer's (or seller's) side that you were asked to price.

For example, the ICC's tariff guidance note shows that under every rule except DDP, the buyer handles import clearance and pays import duty. So a quote to a Dubai importer buying FOB should include origin port-to-destination costs but leave out the supplier's export side.

4. Charges, split into four blocks

1. Origin charges: pickup, export clearance, origin terminal handling, documentation.
2. Main freight: ocean, air or road freight, with the basis (per container, per kg, per CBM).
3. Surcharges: fuel or bunker adjustments, peak season, security, currency adjustment, as applied by the carrier.
4. Destination charges: destination terminal handling, delivery order, customs clearance fee, delivery trucking, and any inspection or storage handling.

Each line should show the basis, currency, unit price, quantity, total and VAT treatment.

5. Validity, terms and exclusions

• The expiry date, and that the price depends on space and equipment being available.
• Payment terms and the invoicing currency.
• Exclusions, written out: customs duty and import VAT, demurrage and detention beyond free time, storage, inspection charges, insurance (unless quoted), and anything "at cost".
• Free time at origin and destination, if you know it.

A freight quotation template you can copy

Replace the bracketed text. Leave lines out instead of showing zero when they do not apply.

• Quote [Q-number] · Issued [date] · Valid until [date]
• Customer: [company], attn [name], ref [customer ref]
• Mode: [Sea FCL / LCL / Air / Road] · Incoterm: [term + named place], Incoterms® 2020
• Route: [origin place] to [destination place]
• Cargo: [description], [packages], [gross kg], [CBM], [HS code if known], [DG: yes/no]
• Equipment: [e.g. 1 x 40' HC] · Ready date: [date]

Not included: customs duty and import VAT (at cost, as assessed by customs); demurrage, detention and storage beyond free time; inspection and examination charges; cargo insurance unless quoted above; any charge not listed.

Terms: subject to space and equipment availability; [payment terms]; [currency and exchange rate basis].

Getting the VAT column right

VAT treatment differs by line, so it gets its own column. In the UAE, Article 45 of the VAT Decree-Law zero-rates international transport of goods that starts or ends in the UAE or passes through it, including transport-related services. In Saudi Arabia, the VAT Implementing Regulations zero-rate international transport of goods, and zero-rate related services in set conditions. Purely local services may not qualify. Confirm how each of your charge lines is treated, because getting it wrong on hundreds of invoices is expensive to fix.

Common freight quoting mistakes

1. No expiry date. A customer accepts a six-week-old price after the carrier rate has moved, and the margin is gone.
2. Validity longer than your buy rate. Your quote outlives the carrier or agent rate it was built on.
3. Vague places. "China to Saudi" could be any of several ports and hundreds of doors. Name the port, airport or address.
4. No Incoterm, or the wrong one. If the customer buys CIF Jeddah and you quote ocean freight, they pay for freight twice.
5. Duty quoted as a fixed number. Duty depends on the HS code and customs value. Dubai Customs, for example, assesses it on the CIF value at the declaration-date exchange rate (Dubai Customs FAQ). Quote your service fee and show duty as "at cost".
6. Missing exclusions. If demurrage, storage or inspection are not excluded in writing, the customer will dispute them later.
7. Chargeable weight not shown for air. Show actual and volumetric weight so the customer can check the basis.
8. Quote built in a spreadsheet nobody can find. When the customer confirms, the job is set up again from memory and the costs no longer match the quote.

How a quote becomes a job

A quote is only useful if what you promised is what you then book and bill. A clean flow looks like this:

1. Inquiry logged with route, mode, cargo and dates.
2. Buy rates collected from carriers, agents and truckers.
3. Quote built from those costs plus your margin, then sent.
4. Follow-up until the customer accepts, declines or the quote expires.
5. Confirmation turned into a job, carrying every detail across: cargo, route, Incoterm, sell rates and buy rates.
6. Vendors booked from the job, with their confirmations kept on it.
7. Customer invoiced from the job, and vendor bills matched against the costs you quoted.

Step 7 is where you find out whether the quote made money. If buy costs were quoted on one sheet and the vendor bill arrives by email weeks later, nobody checks.

Quickship's Freight Management Module is built around this flow. Quotes are built from vendor costs and your margin and tracked until the customer answers. A confirmed quote becomes a job in one step. Vendor bills are matched against the costs you quoted, and every email and document stays on the job.

A short checklist before you send

• Expiry date printed, and no later than your shortest buy-rate validity.
• Incoterm and named place stated, with "Incoterms® 2020".
• Origin, freight, surcharges and destination shown as separate blocks.
• Basis and currency on every line.
• VAT treatment checked per line.
• Exclusions written out, with duty and VAT "at cost".
• Cargo details match the customer's inquiry: weight, volume, DG status.