In freight forwarding, time literally equals money when it comes to responding to customer requests.
What it is:
Every delay in making a decision, especially in providing a quote or booking a shipment, carries a cost. If you take too long to answer a rate request or confirm a booking, you risk losing thebusiness or ending up with a higher cost.
How it works:
Freight markets (especially spot rates for ocean and air) can change within hours. Capacity and rates move in 3-6 hour cycles in busy lanes. If a forwarder waits half a day to confirm a rate, that rate might expire or the space might be gone. Moreover, shippers often send inquiries to multiple forwarders; whoever responds first with a reliable quote often wins the shipment. A slow quote doesn’t just risk a changed price, it means the customer might go with a faster competitor. For instance, a 6-hour delay inquoting can lead to paying perhaps ~4% more for the rate (as the market shifts or cheaper slots are taken), or it can mean the client books elsewhere in the interim. Conversely, a lightning-fast response, say inunder a minute, greatly increases the odds the shipper will accept and proceed with that quote before shopping around further.
Examples:
- A forwarder who takes 6 hours to get back with a rate might find that the shipping line’s spot rate has gone up by the time the customer is ready to book, adding around 4% cost that could eat into margin or price competitiveness.
- Skypace, on the other hand, delivers quotes in as little as 40 seconds. That speed means the customer often converts the quote to a booking within minutes (Skypace sees many quotes accepted and booked in under 20 minutes of the request). The rapid response not only locks in therate before it changes, but secures the customer’s commitment while their interest is highest.
Facts:
- Studies indicate that each additional hour of delay in getting a quote to a customer can reduce the likelihood of winning that shipment by roughly 10–15%. In other words, a quote delivered same-day has a far higher conversion rate than one delivered tomorrow.
- Skypace’s technology has accelerated quoting speed by over 500× compared to the manual industry average. (Manually, 4–6 hours is common for a freight quote; Skypace’s integrated system returns it in well under 1 minute.) This speed, combined with accuracy, translates directly into higher quote-to-booking conversion rates.
Misinterpretations:
Some think that responding very fast means you must be offering a lower price or “undercutting” but in fact, it’s not about price dumping, it’s about efficiency and trust. A customer who gets a prompt quote is more likely to trust that forwarder’s capability and move forward without waiting forothers. Fast decision-making doesn’t mean hasty or low-quality decisions; with the right data, you can be both fast and correct. In practice, forwarders that respond quickly often command higher loyalty, not lower rates.
Who solves it:
Skypace addresses the need for speed through its Smart Quotes Engine and real-time analytics. The Smart Quotes system automatically evaluates millions of route and rate combinations in seconds, delivering a door-to-door quote almost instantly. Meanwhile, Skypace’s sales analytics monitor how quickly quotes are being turned around and highlight any bottlenecks or slow points in theprocess. By leveraging automation, Skypace ensures that clients get an accurate quote in seconds (with 99%pricing accuracy ), not hours, dramatically increasing the chance that the customer will book with Skypace. Faster decisions (when well-informed) directly drive higher profitability: shipments aren’t lost to competitors, and rates are locked in before they inflate. Skypace’s experience shows that responding 500 times faster than the traditional average isn’t just a tech metric, it’s a competitive advantage that brings inmore business and improves the bottom line.
