Freight RFP pricing: spreadsheet or software?

Published 17 October 2026. Updated 17 October 2026.

A shipper's RFP lands with a few hundred lanes and a deadline. Many small brokerages answer it the same way: open the shipper's workbook, open a rate history, and match the two by hand or with lookup formulas. The alternative is software that does the matching. Neither is always right. This guide compares the two on the things that decide whether a bid is accurate, and says plainly when a spreadsheet is the better choice.

What does pricing an RFP actually take?

Whichever tool you use, the job has four parts:

1. Read the template. Work out which tab holds the lanes and which hold instructions, volumes or accessorial questions. Every shipper lays these out differently.
2. Match each lane to your history. A lane is not just an origin and a destination. Equipment, number of stops and weekly volume can all change the carrier cost, so a match has to agree on all of them.
3. Apply your numbers. Markup on the buy rate, then fuel. State both before you start. The guide on markup versus margin in a freight bid shows how to keep them straight.
4. Hand it back in the shipper's format. Without breaking their formulas or overwriting cells that already hold a value.

Depending on the product, software takes over some or all of parts 1, 2 and 4. Part 3 is arithmetic in either case.

When does a spreadsheet work well?

A spreadsheet is a good tool for this job when:

• The RFP is small. A dozen or two dozen lanes can be matched by eye, with every row in view.
• Your history is tidy. One row per lane, consistent city names, equipment and stops in their own columns.
• The template is plain. One lane tab, one rate column, no merged cells.
• You bid rarely and know your lanes. If you can tell at a glance that a rate looks wrong, your own judgement is the best check available.
• You want full control. Every formula is yours and you can see exactly why a number is what it is.

It also costs nothing extra. If you have a workbook that already works, keep using it.

Where does a spreadsheet break down?

The problems are not in the arithmetic. They are in the matching and in the handling:

• Lookups that match on too little. A lookup keyed on origin and destination returns a rate even when the equipment or stops differ. A dry-van rate ends up on a reefer lane without any warning.
• Approximate matching left on. A lookup function that is allowed to match approximately can return a nearby row instead of an error. If you use lookups, set them to exact match so a missing lane shows an error rather than a plausible wrong number.
• Duplicate keys. If your history has two rows for the same city pair, a lookup typically returns the first one it finds and says nothing about the other.
• Names that almost match. "St. Louis" and "Saint Louis", a state typed in lower case, a trailing space. The lane looks like it has no history, or worse, it matches the wrong one.
• Retyping. Rates copied by hand into the shipper's file are where transposed digits happen.
• Pasting over formulas. Pasting values into the shipper's template can overwrite a cell that held a formula or a value the shipper wanted left alone.
• Version confusion. By the third revision before the deadline, nobody is sure which file holds the final rates.
• Nobody checks the second time. The person who built the match is the person checking it, usually late in the day. The guide on freight RFP pricing mistakes lists these in more detail.

What does software change, and what does it not?

"Software" covers several different things, so be clear which you mean:

• A pricing or RFP feature inside a TMS. It is convenient if you already use that system and your lane data is clean there.
• A self-serve RFP platform where you work through the lanes inside the vendor's tool.
• A single-task tool that takes the shipper's file and your history and returns the mapped lanes.

Depending on the product, software does some or all of the matching for you, or gives you a place to do it yourself, and may keep a record of why each lane matched. Some products also suggest rates from market data; others work only from your own history. Whichever you pick, the rate you submit is still your decision. What differs between products is how they treat a lane with no history, whether they use your own buy rates or something else, and whether you get the shipper's own file back. Those are the questions to ask.

Spreadsheet or software: how do they compare?

When does a full platform make more sense?

A single-task tool is not the right answer for everyone. A TMS module or a wider pricing platform is the better choice when:

• You want one system for spot quotes, contract rates and RFPs, with reporting across all of them.
• Your lane history already lives in that system and stays current there.
• You answer RFPs often enough that a standing subscription is cheaper than paying per lane.
• You need integrations with other systems.

A spreadsheet is the better choice when the RFP is small or you only bid a few times a year on lanes you know well.

What should you check whichever way you price?

1. List every tab in the shipper's file and write one line on what each contains.
2. Decide markup and fuel before you look at a single lane.
3. Match on origin, destination, equipment, stops and volume, not on origin and destination alone.
4. Mark every lane with no history in a separate colour before pricing anything.
5. Spot-check ten lanes you know well against your own memory of the rate.
6. Keep one file named as final and delete the rest of the versions from the folder you submit from.
7. Finish pricing a day before the deadline so a second look is possible.

How LaneMapper does this

You upload two files: the shipper's RFP as it arrived, and your own lane rate history. The RFP can be an Excel workbook with any tabs and headers, a CSV, a Word or PDF table, or a photo of the lane sheet. LaneMapper reads every lane and matches it to the one row in your history with the same origin, stops, destination, equipment and volume band. A rate is released only when the lane exactly equals its cited history row. Anything else is flagged for you.

A model describes the layout of the shipper's template and code checks that description against the cells. The arithmetic for markup and fuel is done by code, not by the model. 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 get back 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 with a rate column it can identify, the shipper's own file filled in. It never writes over a cell that already has a value.

LaneMapper does not set your rates, does not pull in market rates, and has no TMS integration. It handles up to 1,500 lanes a job. Pricing is 7 credits a lane with no subscription, and every lane read is billed whether or not your history matches it. A 40-lane RFP is $270, a 300-lane RFP is $1,490 and an 800-lane RFP is $4,090. It is a new product with no customers to quote, so judge it on a real RFP of your own. Create an account to try it.

Questions

Is Excel enough to price a freight RFP?

For a short lane list and a tidy rate history, yes. Excel is enough when you can see every lane, the template has one lane tab, and you have time to check each match. It strains when the list runs to hundreds of lanes and the history keys do not line up.

Do I need a TMS to answer shipper RFPs?

Not to answer them. You can price an RFP from an export of your own loads. A TMS helps if it already holds clean lane history and can produce that export, but the matching to the shipper's template is a separate job.

What should I ask a vendor before paying for RFP software?

Ask whether it uses your own carrier buy rates, how it treats a lane with no history, whether it hands back the shipper's own file, what the price is, and what you still have to check. If an answer is vague, treat it as a no.

How many lanes make a spreadsheet too slow?

There is no fixed number. The signs are more than a day spent matching, lookups you no longer trust, or lanes you skip because there is no time. Count how long your last RFP took end to end and decide from that.