What's on a freight quote, line by line.

Why itemized beats a lump sum

A lump sum quote is one number with nothing behind it. You cannot tell which services are inside it, which were left out, or which will arrive later as a bill from a trucker or a warehouse. An itemized quote shows what you are buying, lets you compare two forwarders on the same work, and tells you where a surprise comes from. This guide follows the charges in the order they happen, like our sample quote.

The origin side

Everything before your goods leave the origin country. Whether you pay depends on the Incoterm on your purchase order, which sets where the seller stops and you start.

• Pickup, or cartage: the truck from supplier to port, airport or consolidation warehouse.
• Export handling and documents: bill of lading or air waybill, packing list, booking. Usually flat per shipment.
• Export clearance: the origin country's customs formalities on the way out.
• Origin terminal handling, or THC: the port's charge for moving goods around its yard.

If your supplier's price covered delivery to the port, some are paid already. Our guide to Incoterms covers who owes what.

The main leg and its surcharges

Usually the biggest line. Ocean is priced per container for a full load, or by whichever is greater of volume and weight for shared space. Air is priced on chargeable weight, so bulky cargo pays for the room it takes.

Around it sit surcharges, real carrier costs on their own schedule: fuel (BAF on ocean), reset monthly or quarterly; currency adjustment; peak season, when demand runs ahead of space; security, a per kilo screening charge on air; and route charges such as canal and war risk. Ask for base rate and surcharges separately.

The destination side and customs

Two kinds of money sit together here: services someone performed, and government charges collected on the government's behalf. The services are terminal handling, CFS deconsolidation on shared container shipments, where the container freight station separates your pallets from everyone else's, the chassis a full container rides on, billed per day, and the delivery order that releases cargo to your trucker. Then the customs lines:

• ISF filing fee: ocean only, due 24 hours before loading at the foreign port. Small fee, expensive to miss: 19 CFR 113.62(j) sets liquidated damages of $5,000 per violation. See our ISF filing guide.
• Customs entry and broker fee: the licensed customs broker's charge for preparing and filing the entry.
• Customs bond: financial backing that duties will be paid. Single entry, or an annual continuous bond that costs less once you import a few times a year.
• Duties and taxes: set by how goods classify and where they were made. A forwarder may estimate and remit them, but the money is not theirs.
• MPF: on formal entries, 0.3464 percent of entered value, floored and capped. For fiscal year 2026 that is $33.58 and $651.50, and from October 1, 2026 the pair resets to $34.58 and $670.86. Informal entries pay a small flat fee instead.
• HMF: 0.125 percent of value, ocean vessel arrivals only. Air, truck and rail pay none.

Formal entry generally applies above $2,500, informal at or below it. As of September 2026 de minimis is suspended, so parcels that used to skip entry now need one. Estimate duty, MPF and HMF in our shipper tools.

Final delivery and accessorials

The last truck move is simple. Accessorials catch people out: charges for anything beyond pulling up to a dock.

• Liftgate: a powered platform on the truck, for sites with no dock and no forklift.
• Residential delivery: anything without normal commercial truck access, including many small businesses.
• Appointment: the carrier calls ahead and books a window. Many warehouses require it.
• Waiting time: free unloading time is limited, often a couple of hours. Past that the clock starts.
• Inside delivery, limited access, redelivery: carrying past the tailgate, restricted sites, a second attempt.

All avoidable by describing your site honestly: say there is no dock and the liftgate is on the quote from the start.

The risk lines

Not shown as amounts, because nobody knows yet whether they apply. A good quote still names them.

• Demurrage: rent on terminal ground, once a container sits past the free time allowed there.
• Detention, or per diem: rent on the box itself, once it leaves the terminal and is not returned on time.
• Storage: the same idea at a warehouse or container freight station.
• Exam fees: if Customs picks your shipment, you pay the move to the exam site, the exam and the days it costs.
• Reweigh and remeasure: if the carrier's scale disagrees with your numbers, the rate is recalculated on theirs.

Free time is not set by federal rule. It comes from the terminal schedule, the carrier tariff or your contract. Ask what yours is before the container lands.

Cargo insurance

Cargo insurance is an option on your quote, not a standard line, and never something a forwarder should promise an outcome on. Carrier liability is not insurance: carriers cap what they owe by weight or package under their contract of carriage, often far below what your goods are worth. Insurance terms come from the insurer, and the exclusions are the part to read.

What can change after booking

A quote prices a described shipment. Change the description and the price follows.

1. The cargo is not what you described. More weight, bigger dimensions, a different piece count. The carrier measures it.
2. The ready date slips past the rate validity. Surcharges reset, and peak season may have started.
3. The classification changes. A different tariff code is a different duty rate.
4. Government action. An exam, an agency hold, or a duty change between booking and arrival.
5. Time runs out. Free time, a missed appointment, a container that could not be returned.
6. The site was not as described. No dock, or a street a 53 foot trailer cannot enter.

Not on that list: a fee the forwarder forgot. If a charge appears with no document behind it, ask for the document.

How to compare two quotes fairly

1. Check the scope. Same pickup, same delivery, same Incoterm. Port to port against door to door is no comparison.
2. Line them up. Write both into one list. Anything one has and the other lacks is excluded work or a buried fee.
3. Add the exclusions back in. A quote missing an ISF fee, a chassis line and a liftgate is not cheaper if you get billed for all three later.
4. Separate the pass throughs. Duties, MPF and HMF are the same whoever quotes them. Pull them out and compare service prices.
5. Compare validity and transit. A cheaper rate that expires next week, or adds ten days, is a different product.
6. Read the risk section. The quote that names demurrage and exams up front will not surprise you.

Questions to ask any forwarder

• What is not included in this quote?
• How long does this price hold, and what if my cargo is late?
• Which charges go to the government, and which are yours?
• How much free time at destination, and when does the clock start?
• Who files my customs entry, and are they a licensed customs broker?
• If a charge changes, will I see the document before I am billed?
• Who do I call when something goes wrong?

The answers matter less than the willingness to answer.

How BGL quotes

We are a non-asset freight forwarder: we arrange the movement and buy space from carriers rather than owning ships, planes or trucks, and we coordinate customs entry with a licensed customs broker. BGL is not a customs broker itself, and our FMCSA and FMC registrations are in progress.

Every quote is itemized and in writing within 1 business day, in four blocks: what is included, what is not, what could change and why, and how long the price holds. Duties and government fees are estimated separately, because they are not ours. Cargo insurance is explained, never promised. Send us the basics and see the whole cost. More in the guides hub.