Part 2 · Price it first

By the end: a rate on the lane before you quote it — in the app, in Excel for a whole RFP at once, or through the API inside your own system.

1. Three ways to reach Market Rates

It is the same data in all three. Pick whichever fits how you work.

• In the app — on the Rates tab, and on every posting.
• In Excel — a whole RFP at once.
• Through the API — inside your own TMS or quoting tool.

2. Read the band, not the number

A rate is a band, not a number. Three figures come back for a lane:

• Low — where a quarter of carrier bids came in at or below.
• Mid — the median.
• High — the top quarter.

How to use it

Start your target near the mid. Below the low end, expect few takers. Near the high end, you cover faster and give up margin.

Confidence tells you how many carriers and how many bids stand behind the band. A band with strong confidence is a band you can lean on.

Where the numbers come from

These are carrier bids on Cargado over the last twelve weeks. Not what another broker paid. Not bought from a third party.

It is a guide, not a guarantee. Quote inside the band, and tell your customer why — “this is where carriers have actually been bidding this lane” is a better answer than a number with nothing behind it.

3. A whole RFP at once: the Excel add-in

Got an RFP with two hundred lanes? Do not look them up one at a time. The Excel add-in is the feature most customers tell us they did not know they had.

Deploying it

Your Microsoft 365 admin deploys it to the whole company once, from AppSource. After that it lives on everyone's Home tab in Excel. Individual users do not install anything.

Using it

1. Click Create sheets.
2. Tell Cargado what your RFP calls a dry van, and where it crosses. Your customer's spreadsheet will not use our words — this is where you map them.
3. Paste your lanes into origin, destination, trailer and crossing.
4. Low, mid and high come back for every lane with enough bid data.

4. No rate? Post it

Sometimes a lane comes back with no rate. That means too few recent bids on that lane. It does not mean no carriers run it.

What to do depends on whether the freight is yours yet:

• You own the freight — post it as a Load or a Lane, and message the suggested carriers.
• You are still quoting it — post a Potential. Carriers price it knowing it may not move.

Either way, the bids that come back tell you where the lane prices. And they build the Market Rate for next time — including yours.

Common mistakes in part 2

• Quoting before pricing. By the time you get a rate back to your customer, there is a good chance they have already given it to a different broker.
• Treating the mid as the answer. It is the middle of a range, not a market price. Read the confidence next to it.
• Looking up RFP lanes one at a time. That is what the Excel add-in is for, and your admin can deploy it in a few minutes.
• Dropping a lane because it has no rate. No rate means thin recent bid data on that lane, nothing more. Post it and find out.

Next: Part 3 · Post it right