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Comparison
Three carriers side by side: rate, transit time, payment term, insurance limit. The comparable total and the best column are formulas.
Excel template
Freight Quote Comparison Table
An Excel file that puts three carrier quotes side by side and brings them onto the same basis. Not the headline rate — the comparable total. Download without signing up.
Download the table (.xlsx)
No sign-up, no email. The file downloads directly.
seferi-quote-comparison.xlsx
.xlsxComparisonItemsHow to use
Carrier nameQuote dateValid untilItemCarrier A
Columns with a blue header are formulas; they fill themselves. Rows arrive empty.
The file has three sheets
Enter three quotes, mark twelve items, and the comparable total works itself out.
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Items
Write your own estimated cost for each of the twelve items, then mark Y or N for whether each carrier includes it.
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How to use
The filling order, where each formula pulls from, and why the lowest total is not the decision on its own.
What the table compares
The first group is the sheet's own columns; the rest are the rows being compared. Transit time and payment terms sit in the table alongside price — when the price gap narrows, that is where the decision is made.
Sheet columns
- Item
- Carrier A
- Carrier B
- Carrier C
- Best — formula
The quote itself
- Carrier name
- Quote date
- Valid until
- Freight rate (excl. VAT)
What levels them
- Cost of excluded items — formula
- Comparable total — formula
Beyond price
- Transit time (days)
- Payment term (days)
- Insurance limit
- Note
The twelve items are the same as the included/excluded section of our freight quote form: waiting time, extra stops, empty running, insurance, tolls and the rest. You ask with the form and compare with the table.
You have seen the columns. The file itself is one click away — no sign-up, no email.
Where Excel stops being enough
For comparing three quotes Excel is more than enough; the template exists to make that easier.
The limit starts the moment a quote is accepted. The price you picked and the invoice that arrives after the trip have to match; every gap becomes reconciliation work. The table is a snapshot of a decision, and checking it against the invoice happens in a different file.
The second is repetition. Collecting quotes for the same lane a third time means opening old files to recall the prices. The table does not accumulate which carrier is better on which route.
The third is what actually happened. The table holds what a carrier promised, not what it delivered. The transit days you typed never sit next to the days it actually took.
Read next
01
How to Calculate Freight Cost: A Carrier's Real Cost Formula
Freight cost is not the price quoted to the shipper; it is the sum of the ten cost items a carrier covers to make a trip happen.
02How Is Road Freight Rate (Navlun) Calculated? [2026]
What breaks a freight rate is not the formula but the items that never reach the quote: the empty return leg and the tolls along the route.
03How to Prepare a Freight Quote Using AI [2026]
What AI does in a freight quote is not setting the price but turning a free-text enquiry into a structured trip request.
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Freight Quote Form (Word)
The quote document you send a customer — it also asks what the price includes.
Frequently asked questions
What people ask most before downloading.
How is this different from the freight quote form?
The quote form is the document you SEND to a customer — Word, because it has to carry your letterhead and a signature. This table is where you put the quotes you RECEIVE side by side, and it is Excel because it does arithmetic. They work together: you ask about the included/excluded items with the form, then record the answers in this table.
What is the "comparable total" and why not just look at the rate?
Because the quotes do not contain the same things. An illustrative example: carrier A quotes 25,000 but excludes waiting time and tolls; carrier B quotes 27,000 with everything included. Looking at the headline, A seems cheaper. If waiting comes to 2,500 and tolls to 2,200, A really costs 29,700 and B moves ahead. The table does that arithmetic with the figures you enter; the file itself carries none.
Where do I find the item costs?
From your own operation. Waiting-hour charges, handling and insurance vary by company, lane and cargo; a figure baked into the file would read as a market rate and produce a false comparison. Leave an item blank if you do not know it — it counts as zero rather than inventing an assumption.
Is the lowest total always the right pick?
No, and the table deliberately makes that harder to assume. Transit time, payment term and insurance limit sit right under the price. When the price gap is small the decision usually lives there: a carrier that delivers two days earlier, or gives thirty days to pay, can be worth a few hundred more.
Can I compare more than three quotes?
The file ships set up for three carriers. For a fourth, copy the last carrier column to the right on both sheets; the formulas are written column-relative so they follow. Remember to widen the range in the "best" formula on the Comparison sheet as well.
Do I need to sign up to download it?
No. We do not ask for an email and there is no form. The file downloads as soon as you click.
Calculators, Excel templates and reference tables in one place.
All free resourcesLet the quote you accept match the invoice you issue
In Seferi the quote, the trip and the invoice move on one record. The price you agreed and the amount the trip produces are compared on the same screen.