Rating and Quoting: How the Tai TMS Gets Quotes

This article explains how the Tai TMS collects freight rate quotes from carriers and rate providers, puts them into one comparable format, prices accessorials, and handles carriers that cannot serve a lane or respond too slowly.

Overview

The Tai TMS lets you request freight rate quotes for a shipment and compare them side by side. You describe the shipment once, and the system asks the carriers and rate providers you have set up for their price. It supports a large network of sources (roughly 130 carriers and providers, including less-than-truckload carriers, truckload carriers, parcel, brokerage rate aggregators, and predictive market-rate providers). Because every response is translated into a single standard quote format, you can compare a quote from one carrier directly against a quote from another, no matter how differently each carrier formats its own reply.

How it works

You enter the shipment details a single time: the pickup and delivery stops, the commodities and their weight and freight class, the trailer or equipment type, any accessorials (extra services such as liftgate or residential delivery), the declared value for insurance, and mileage. You then request quotes from the carriers or rate providers you have configured.

For each source, the Tai TMS takes your one shipment request, translates it into the format that particular carrier expects, sends it, receives the carrier's reply, and translates that reply back into a single standard quote. This translation is why quotes are comparable: the system does the work of normalizing everything so you do not have to read each carrier's native format.

A standard quote includes the total price broken into consistent categories (freight charge, fuel surcharge, accessorial charges, any discount, any guaranteed-service charge, and the total), the estimated transit days, the service level, a quote identifier, and often a terminal, a tariff name, liability coverage, an expected delivery date, and a quote expiration date. A single carrier can return more than one quote for the same shipment. For example, an LTL carrier might return both a standard rate and a volume rate. Each of those is priced and shown separately.

Quotes are returned live at the moment you ask. The system does not serve you a saved or cached price, so the numbers reflect what the carrier or rate provider returns for that request.

Business rules & limits

• Some carriers or lanes come back "not serviced." If a carrier does not run the requested lane, does not cover one of the stops, or has no rate for the shipment, that carrier's result is marked as not serviced rather than returning a price. This is normal and expected; it means that carrier is not an option for that particular shipment.
• A slow carrier can time out. Each quote request runs under a time limit. If a carrier does not respond in time, that carrier's result comes back as a timeout instead of a price. The time limit is configurable within a supported window (from 15 up to 75 seconds), so you can allow more time for slower carriers or keep the whole request snappy.
• One failed carrier does not break the whole quote. If a carrier is not serviced, times out, or otherwise fails, it does not stop the others. You still receive every successful quote from the carriers that did respond, alongside a clear list of the ones that failed and why. A rating request never fails as a whole just because one source failed.
• Accessorials are priced by the carrier and can affect whether a quote succeeds. When you request an accessorial, the system passes it to the carrier so the carrier can price it into the quote. Some accessorials are priced by the Tai TMS itself instead of the carrier. If a carrier does not recognize an accessorial you requested, that carrier cannot produce a valid quote and its result will fail, while other carriers that do support the accessorial still return normally.
• A carrier can return multiple rates. Receiving two or more quotes from the same carrier for the same shipment (for example, a standard rate and a volume rate) is expected behavior, not a duplicate.
• Quotes may or may not carry an expiration. Many carrier quotes include an expiration date after which the price is no longer guaranteed. Market-priced or dynamically priced quotes may not advertise an expiration date at all, because their price is meant to reflect current conditions rather than a locked-in tariff.
• A charge a carrier does not return shows as zero. If a carrier's reply does not include a particular charge category (for example, no separate fuel surcharge), that category shows as zero in the quote rather than as an error.

Frequently asked questions

Why did one carrier come back as "not serviced" in my quote results?

In the Tai TMS, a "not serviced" result means that carrier does not have a rate for that shipment. It usually happens when the carrier does not run the requested lane, does not cover one of the stops, or is out of its service area for that origin or destination. It is not an error on your side; it simply means that carrier is not an option for that shipment, and you should use one of the other quotes that came back successfully.

What happens if a carrier is slow to respond when I request quotes?

The Tai TMS runs each quote request under a time limit. If a carrier does not answer within that limit, its result is returned as a timeout rather than a price, and the request moves on. The other carriers still return their quotes normally. The time limit is adjustable within a supported window (15 to 75 seconds), so you can give slower carriers more time when you need to.

If one carrier fails, do I lose all of my quotes?

No. In the Tai TMS, a failure from one carrier (whether it is not serviced, a timeout, or another error) does not cancel the rest. You always receive the successful quotes from the carriers that did respond, plus a separate list of which carriers failed and the reason. A single carrier problem never breaks the entire quoting request.

Why did I get two quotes from the same carrier for one shipment?

This is expected. In the Tai TMS a single carrier can return more than one rate for the same shipment, such as a standard LTL rate and a volume rate. Each rate is priced separately and shown as its own quote so you can choose the one that fits the shipment.

How are accessorials handled when I request a quote?

When you add accessorials (extra services like liftgate, residential, or inside delivery) to a shipment in the Tai TMS, the system passes them to the carrier so the carrier prices them into the quote. Some accessorials are priced by the Tai TMS itself rather than the carrier. If a carrier does not recognize an accessorial you asked for, that carrier cannot return a valid quote and its result fails, but carriers that do support the accessorial still return their quotes.

Do freight quotes expire?

Many carrier quotes in the Tai TMS include an expiration date, after which the carrier no longer guarantees that price. Some quotes, particularly market-priced or dynamically priced ones, do not advertise an expiration date because their price reflects current market conditions rather than a fixed tariff. When an expiration date is present, treat it as the window in which the quoted price is valid.

What is the difference between a carrier quote and a rate-intelligence estimate?

A carrier quote in the Tai TMS is a price returned by a specific carrier from its own tariff for your shipment. A rate-intelligence estimate comes from a predictive market-rate provider and estimates the likely going rate for a lane rather than quoting one carrier's tariff. Carrier quotes tell you what a specific carrier will charge; rate-intelligence estimates help you benchmark and set pricing against the broader market.

Can I compare quotes from different carriers directly?

Yes. The Tai TMS translates every carrier's reply into the same standard quote format, breaking the price into consistent categories (freight charge, fuel surcharge, accessorials, discounts, guaranteed-service charge, and total) and including transit days, service level, and delivery expectations. Because every quote is normalized this way, you can line up quotes from different carriers and compare them directly.

Where do the quotes come from, and are they real-time?

The Tai TMS pulls quotes live from the carriers and rate providers you have configured, at the moment you request them. It does not reuse a cached or previously saved price, so each quote reflects what the carrier returns for that specific request. Sources range from individual LTL, truckload, and parcel carriers to brokerage rate aggregators and predictive market-rate providers.