The prices of different transport companies vary widely. A quote request can be three times higher from one provider than from the competitor. Moreover, 65 per cent of transport companies do not answer a request for quotation.
This is according to a survey by Quicargo among 155 transport companies in Europe. The transport platform requested quotes from all these companies and found that quotes were calculated in very different ways. Rates for domestic shipments can be up to 270.45 per cent higher, with prices ranging between €110 and €408, with an average of €211.
Prices for domestic FTL shipments can be as much as 273.36 per cent higher, with rates starting from EUR 190 and going up to EUR 709. Price differences for international transport are lower than for domestic transport. Nevertheless, the most expensive offer for an international part-load to Sweden is still 182.26 per cent higher than the cheapest offer.
Price per pallet
The transport platform also looked at the differences in price per pallet. Domestic FTL costs per pallet start from EUR 5.76, while for international part-loads the price per pallet can be as high as EUR 140. Quicargo also mentions that the lowest cost per pallet for international LTLs (49.60 euros) is lower than the cost per pallet for international FTLs (51.36 euros). According to the platform, this data may indicate that there is a lot to gain for shippers in particular when they want to put away international LTL shipments.
Response time
Quicargo tracked how long companies take to answer a request. It looked at requests for quotes for domestic transport in the Netherlands. The average response time is about 9 hours. Only 14.29 per cent of companies respond within the hour. Almost 20 per cent of transport companies take up to 48 hours.
Unanswered requests
In fact, a large number of companies do not respond at all after a request for quotation. Quicargo approached 155 companies, of which only 54 gave a response. That means 65 per cent of the requests remained unanswered.
Looking at the differences between domestic and international requests, it is noticeable that international requests are picked up and answered faster (40 per cent). For domestic quotation requests, the response rate is 32.38 per cent.
In the last case (domestic shipments), responses were also incomplete. Half of the companies did not give a clear and transparent price in the response. In international transport, this was more often the case.
