[ GUIDE ]
What an ocean freight rate is, and what moves it
The ocean rate is one number. Fuel, currency, and space on the ship can move the invoice after you accept it.
The rate is not the invoice
A quoted ocean rate is the price to move the box from one port to another under an incoterm. It often excludes duty, VAT, delivery, and the surcharges a carrier can adjust: fuel, and sometimes currency or peak-season add-ons. A long exclusion list is how desks protect themselves. It also makes two quotes hard to compare.
There is no free live index in this tool
Public freight indices such as the Freightos Baltic Index and Drewry's World Container Index are not available as a free API. This product stores a lane baseline the forwarder enters, and shows that figure as a baseline, not as today's spot rate.
Why do two forwarders quote different numbers?
They may be using different incoterms, different included surcharges, or a different guess about the cargo size. The form exists so the cargo size is the same in both conversations.