Can ChatGPT price a freight RFP?
Can an AI chat assistant such as ChatGPT take a shipper's RFP and return priced lanes? The honest answer is that it can do some of the work well and some of it badly, and the parts it does badly are the ones that cost you money if they slip through. This guide separates the two, says when a chat assistant is all you need, and gives a way to use one safely.
What is a chat assistant good at in an RFP?
A general chat assistant is a fair helper for the language and spreadsheet parts of the job:
- Explaining a confusing template. Paste the instructions tab and ask what the shipper wants for accessorials or fuel.
- Writing formulas. An exact-match lookup across several columns is easy to ask for and easy to test.
- Drafting the cover note or the answers to the shipper's written questions, which you then edit.
- Cleaning names. Ask it to turn a list of city spellings into one consistent format.
- Summarising your own assumptions into a short note for the file.
For a small RFP, say a dozen lanes you know well, this may be all you need. You can match the lanes yourself and use the assistant for the writing.
Where does it go wrong on pricing?
The trouble starts when you ask it to do the matching and the pricing itself:
- A plausible number for a lane with no history. A chat assistant is built to answer. If a lane is missing from the data you gave it and you have not told it exactly what to do in that case, it may return a reasonable-looking rate for a lane you have never run. That is one of the costliest errors in an RFP, because you may win the lane at that rate.
- Hundreds of lanes are hard to check in a chat. Whether you paste a long lane list and a long history or upload them as files, the longer the input, the harder it is to see what was dropped or merged.
- Arithmetic. Language models can make arithmetic mistakes. Markup, then fuel, across hundreds of rows is where a wrong digit hides. Have it write the formula rather than do the sums, and let the spreadsheet calculate.
- Matching on too little. Unless told otherwise, a match on origin and destination can ignore equipment, stops and volume band. Reefer and dry van, one stop and two stops, are different costs.
- Different answers on different runs. Ask twice and you may get two different lanes matched. A bid needs to be reproducible.
- No record of why. If the answer does not cite the history row it used, you cannot check it without redoing the match.
- Handing back the shipper's file. Reproducing a bespoke multi-tab template faithfully, without touching cells it should leave alone, is harder than it looks.
- Confidentiality. Your buy rates are the core of your business. Check where the data goes before you paste it in.
Chat assistant or purpose-built tool: how do they compare?
| What matters | General chat assistant | Spreadsheet formulas | LaneMapper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Explaining a template | Often helpful; check it against the instructions | Not applicable | Maps the lane layout; does not explain the shipper's instructions |
| Lane with no history | Depends on your instructions, so check every one | Shows an error if set to exact match | Flagged and left empty, never guessed |
| Arithmetic | You check it yourself | Done by the spreadsheet | Done by code, not by the model |
| Why a lane matched | Only if you ask for a citation, and you check it | Visible in your formula | The matched history row sits beside the source row |
| Same result twice | Not guaranteed | Yes | Matching and rates are done by code; the template layout is read by a model and checked by code |
| Shipper's file back | You verify the output | You paste it in | Filled in place for Excel when a rate column is identified, never over a cell that already has a value |
| Cost | Depends on your plan | Your time | 7 credits a lane, no subscription |
When is a chat assistant the better choice?
Use a chat assistant, not a purpose-built tool, when:
- The RFP is small enough that you can match every lane by eye.
- You mainly need help understanding the instructions or writing the response letter.
- You want a formula or a macro and will test it yourself.
- You are exploring how to structure your rate history before you build it.
Pay for a dedicated tool when the lane count is high, the cost of one wrong match is large, or you do not have a day to check the output.
How do you use a chat assistant safely on an RFP?
- Never let it invent a rate. Tell it to return "no match" for any lane without an exact history row, and to say which row it used for every lane it does match.
- Give it the matching keys. Origin, destination, equipment, stops and volume band, all required.
- Do the maths in the spreadsheet. Take the matches back into your workbook and apply markup and fuel with formulas you can read. The guide on pricing from your rate history shows the method.
- Test on lanes you know. Pick ten lanes whose rates you could quote from memory and compare.
- Keep a copy of the original and compare the returned file against it.
- Review the mistakes list. The guide to freight RFP pricing mistakes is a good last pass.
How LaneMapper does this
LaneMapper is built for this one task. You upload the shipper's RFP as it arrived (an Excel workbook with any tabs and headers, a CSV, a Word or PDF table, or a photo of the lane sheet) and your own lane rate history. A model describes the layout of the template, and code checks that description against the cells and reads every lane.
Matching is done by code, not by the model: each lane goes to the one history row with the same origin, stops, destination, equipment and volume band. A rate is released only when the lane exactly equals its cited history row. Lanes with no match are flagged and left empty. Markup and fuel are applied by code, and the rates are locked so that a later fix cannot rewrite one.
A second, stronger AI model reviews every result, fixes what it can, and lists what is left for you to decide. Results are model output checked by code and by a second model; they are not verified by a person. You still set the rates and submit the bid.
You get a workbook with live formulas and the source row beside the matched row, a CSV with one row per lane and, for an Excel RFP where a rate column can be identified, the shipper's file filled in without overwriting any cell that already has a value. LaneMapper does not look up market rates and does not suggest a price for a lane you have never run. It handles up to 1,500 lanes a job. Pricing is 7 credits a lane with no subscription: $270 for 40 lanes and $1,490 for 300 lanes. It is a new product with no customers to quote. Create an account and try it on an RFP you have already priced.
Questions
- Is it safe to paste my carrier rates into a chat assistant?
- Read the data terms of the tool and your plan first. Your buy rates are commercially sensitive. Some tools use conversations to improve their models unless you change a setting, and company policy or shipper confidentiality terms may restrict what you can share.
- Can a chat assistant fill in the shipper's Excel file?
- Some can edit a spreadsheet, but check the output cell by cell. Look for changed formats, shifted columns, overwritten cells and lanes that no longer line up with the original. Always compare the returned file to the one the shipper sent.
- Can it write the formulas for me instead?
- Yes, and that is one of the best uses. Ask for an exact-match lookup on origin, destination, equipment and stops, test it on lanes you know, and keep the formulas in your own workbook where you can inspect them.
- Why not just give it my rate history and ask for a price per lane?
- A request phrased that way invites an answer for every lane, including lanes you have never run. Ask for a match with a citation to the history row, and for no answer where there is no row, then check a sample yourself.
Your next RFP, mapped before the deadline.
Create an account, upload the file, download the priced lanes.