Every broker has watched a load sit. The lane was fine, the season was fine, the customer was fine. The number was wrong from the start — because the quote was priced on a category, not a car.
Why type-only quoting fails
Carriers don’t haul categories. They haul weight and length onto a deck with other weight and length. An XL SUV that takes a spot and a half prices differently from the compact that shares its “SUV” label. When your quote ignores what the carrier can’t ignore, the market corrects you — slowly and publicly.
The repricing spiral
An under-quoted load ages. You raise it $50. It ages more. Another $75. By the time it moves, you’ve eaten the difference between your guess and reality — plus the customer calls asking why their car is still in the driveway. Booking rate up, margin down, and the spread lives in your dispatch queue the whole time.
The market always finds the right price. The only question is how many days of your customer’s patience it spends getting there.
Quote the vehicle, not the type
Start from year, make, and model, and let the system resolve curb weight and dimensions. Layer the lane, the season, and inop status on top. That’s not a data-science project — it’s a lookup table your quoting screen should already be doing for you.