Same business hour for standard lanes, same day for complex multi-leg enquiries. That sounds aggressive against an industry median of 57–101 hours — but buy-side rate validity (as short as 3 hours on carrier spot platforms) and buyer behaviour have already made multi-day quoting economically obsolete.
What the evidence says
The Freightos Mystery Shopper studies measured the world’s largest forwarders repeatedly: 101-hour average manual quotes (2017), 57 hours (2018), with 60–72% of requests never answered at all. Rippey AI’s independent 2022 replication found 31% response rates and ~50-hour averages. Whatever the vintage, the shape is stable: slow and silent is the industry default.
The clock your buy rates set
Hapag-Lloyd’s Quick Quotes Spot rate is valid for three hours. CMA CGM’s SpotOn holds for 24. If your quoting process takes two days, you are either quoting on expired rates or padding prices to cover the drift — both lose: the first your margin, the second your win rate.
A defensible standard
- Standard FCL/LCL/air on lanes you serve: under one hour, target 15 minutes.
- Multi-leg or partner-dependent lanes: same day, with an acknowledgement in minutes so the customer knows you're working.
- Every enquiry: answered — coverage is the cheapest win-rate lever there is.
One live desk moved its median to 15 minutes and watched win rate go from 35% to 73% over twelve months. The full numbers are on our benchmarks page.
From reading to seeing.
Every idea on this page runs live in a working quote desk. Bring a real RFQ and watch.
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