How to Compare Freight Quotes Like for Like

There is no price on this page and nothing here returns one. Senditt publishes no pricing. Quoting runs inside the login Senditt sets up for a business after a freight review. Senditt is a managed freight platform (4PL) for high-volume Australian business shippers: book on Senditt's negotiated rates across 35+ carriers, and track and reconcile every consignment from one dashboard. Senditt is not a marketplace, a courier or a carrier.

These are the questions that decide whether two freight quotes describe the same work. Every clause named below is from Senditt's published carriage terms.

Two Quotes, Two Different Jobs

A quote prices particular work done by a particular business. Clause 2 says the carriage is performed by the carrier selected at booking, and that this carrier's conditions of carriage, service coverage, transit times and item restrictions apply in addition to Senditt's terms. Change who is behind the number and you change what it buys, so what you are buying comes first.

The field is wide: Transport, postal and warehousing, an ABS division wider than road freight, recorded an increase of 4.9% to 261,109 businesses at 30 June 2026 (Australian Bureau of Statistics, Counts of Australian Businesses, 18 August 2026).

The comparison is between arrangements, not between two fixed trucks.

Check the Details Each Quote Was Built From

Clause 7 ties the charge to the booking: what is quoted rests on the details entered. Check both quotes were given the same five things.

• The dimensions, taken the same way for each.
• The weight of the same freight.
• The item count, and what each item is.
• The service selected for that consignment.
• Both addresses, pickup and delivery.

Under clause 3 the customer warrants that every description, dimension, weight, quantity, value and address supplied is complete and accurate, and carries an indemnity to Senditt and each carrier covering loss, damage, expense, penalties and fines caused by an inaccuracy or omission. Clause 2 also permits a tendered package to be opened, inspected, weighed or measured, by Senditt or a carrier it permits.

What the Terms Do Not Settle About Measurements

Measurements come first in clause 7's list of details a charge is adjusted on, and clause 8 bars tendering anything above the dimension or weight limits of the carrier selected, which are whatever the platform displays or Senditt has advised in writing.

What the terms do not do is set out how a carrier converts a measurement into a charge. Clause 7 settles only what follows: where a carrier records different dimensions or weight, the charge is adjusted and re-invoiced. So the useful question is which basis each quote used, and whether both were handed the same measurements.

Service, Transit and Who Carries the Freight

Clause 2 closes by making every transit time shown on the platform an estimate provided by the carrier, and expressly not a guarantee. A quote passing on an estimate and one committing to a date are not the same undertaking, so check which you hold.

Coverage sits in the same column: a cheaper service that cannot reach that address, or take that item, has not quoted your job. The carriers are named on the carriers page, and their performance is something a business can measure for itself.

What Sits Outside the Number

Some things sit outside a quoted figure unless something says otherwise.

• GST. All charges are exclusive of GST unless stated otherwise, under clause 7.
• Insurance. Under clause 4, arranging suitable insurance is the customer's responsibility and transit insurance or warranty is not included unless requested and confirmed by Senditt in writing at booking, in which case that confirmation sets out the cover, exclusions and claim process. The same clause releases Senditt where a policy fails to cover a loss.
• The carrier surcharges clause 7 allows to be added later, where the ground differs from the booking: re-measurement, oversize items, manual handling, dangerous goods, and residential, remote or restricted-area delivery.

That surcharge list names no levy. It is also not a list of everything that can be charged: clause 6 adds the charges for a failed delivery, and clause 7 itself adds charges that attach to the payment rather than the freight. So the question to put to any quote, in writing, is which levies and surcharges sit inside the figure and which arrive later.

Pickup and Delivery Conditions at Both Ends

Addresses do more work than their length suggests. Clause 7 counts a residential, remote or restricted-area delivery among the surcharges that can be added, and the address among the details that trigger a re-invoice.

Clause 6 covers the delivery that does not go to plan. Delivery is complete on a signature from someone presenting as the receiver or its agent, on delivery under an Authority to Leave, or when the goods are available for collection after a failed attempt, and goods left under an Authority to Leave sit at the customer's sole risk from that moment. Where a delivery cannot be completed, clause 6 provides for redelivery, storage, return-to-sender and futile pickup charges at rates the platform displays or Senditt advises, and lets the carrier return the goods if nothing is delivered or collected inside seven days.

Little of that sits in a quoted figure, and much of it turns on the detail on the consignment note.

What Each Quote Says About Things Going Wrong

Clause 5 settles both sides, and both matter. To the maximum extent permitted by law, goods are at the customer's risk and Senditt is not liable for loss, damage, delay, mis-delivery or failure to deliver, including from a carrier's act or omission. Nothing in the terms excludes rights under the Australian Consumer Law that cannot lawfully be excluded, and where such a law applies and allows a limit, Senditt may choose between supplying the affected service again and paying the cost of doing so. The same clause also has Senditt, if asked, lodge and manage a carrier claim at no additional charge with any recovery passed on, and has the customer acknowledge that a carrier's own liability is usually limited and subject to strict time limits.

The limits are in the same clause: seven days from delivery for written notice of damage or shortage, thirty days from despatch for non-delivery, and fourteen business days to supply what a claim needs. A claim outside them is waived, and none may be set off against an invoice. Clause 11 extends every exclusion and limitation to each carrier and its subcontractors, and has the customer undertake not to pursue a carrier beyond what the terms and the carrier's conditions of carriage provide. Where one quote says who lodges a claim and by when and another is silent, that is a difference.

Comparing on an Account Rather Than One Job

Senditt's audience is Australian businesses that ship roughly 500 or more consignments a month, pallet and parcel, not individuals. A wholesale or distribution business is usually comparing an ongoing arrangement, not a single run.

The entry step is a freight review, whose form asks how many consignments you send and what you spend on freight among ten required fields. The account follows from the review rather than a postcode, and quoting and booking run inside the login, where bulk quoting and the rest of the platform sit. Clause 9 makes platform rate and service information confidential to the customer, worth knowing before anyone forwards one provider's rates to another.

Clause 7 sets trading terms at seven days from the invoice date unless Senditt agrees otherwise in writing, and treats an invoice as accepted unless it is disputed in writing within seven days.

A Like-for-Like Checklist

1. The same dimensions, weight, item count, service and addresses on both (clauses 3 and 7).
2. The measurement basis each used, and that the freight itself may be weighed or measured (clauses 2 and 7).
3. Which carrier each assumes, and whose conditions come with it (clauses 2 and 11).
4. Whether a transit time is an estimate or an undertaking (clause 2).
5. GST and insurance in or out, and insurance confirmed in writing at booking where it is in (clauses 4 and 7).
6. Which levies and surcharges sit inside the figure, and what a failed delivery costs (clauses 6 and 7).
7. Who lodges a carrier claim and by when, and on what terms you are invoiced (clauses 5 and 7).

Frequently Asked Questions

What does a freight quote cover?

The carriage the selected carrier performs for the details entered at booking. Clause 7 makes the charge the one quoted at that moment and adjusts it where a carrier records different details, and clause 2 subjects the carriage to that carrier's conditions and coverage as well as Senditt's terms.

Can the carrier on my quote change after I book?

It can, in two ways. Clause 2 allows Senditt to substitute an alternative carrier or service where the selected one cannot perform, using reasonable efforts to notify the customer, and clause 11 allows a carrier to subcontract the whole or part of the carriage.

Is GST included in a freight quote?

Clause 7 states that charges are exclusive of GST unless stated otherwise, so check what each quote states.

Who pays when a delivery cannot be completed?

The customer. Clause 7 makes the customer liable for all charges incurred, and clause 6 provides that a failed delivery can attract redelivery, storage, return-to-sender and futile pickup charges, at rates the platform displays or Senditt advises.

Can I show one provider's quoted rates to another?

Not where they came from the Senditt platform. Clause 9 makes rate and service information displayed there confidential to the customer and bars disclosing it to third parties.