How we make money

Where the money comes from

Freight Benchmarks earns money one way: referral fees. When you ask for a quote, we pass your request to one licensed forwarder partner. If you become that partner’s customer, it pays us a fee based on the freight business it does with you. If you don’t, nobody pays anything.

The fee never comes from customs brokerage: we take nothing tied to customs entries, filings, bonds or duties. We run no ads or sponsored content and sell no data or personal information. If that ever changes, we will update this page first and label anything paid as paid.

What you pay

Nothing to us. The quote is free and you can say no. The partner that quotes you sets its own prices under its own terms, so compare its quote with the benchmarks for your port and with any other quotes you have.

How partners are chosen

We match each request to one partner by lane, port, mode and service, never by the size of the fee it pays us. We never sell your request, auction it or send it to a list, and we share it only after you tick the box on the form that tells us to.

Before a forwarder receives requests, it must:

• hold a Federal Maritime Commission license as an ocean transportation intermediary (NVOCC or ocean freight forwarder), with the bond the license requires, which we check on the FMC’s public list;
• be a licensed US customs broker, so one company handles your freight and your customs entry;
• carry cargo and liability insurance; and
• agree to our service standards: a reply within one business day, every destination fee itemized, free time and demurrage terms in writing, and your details used only to quote and serve you.

We recheck licenses every year. A partner that loses a license or keeps missing the standards stops receiving requests.

When a partner also contributes data

Forwarders can join as data partners, contributing anonymized invoices to the benchmarks, as referral partners, or both. Every data partner today is also a referral partner: it quotes requests sent through this site and pays us referral fees when they become business. That is a material connection, which is why we disclose it here, on the quote form and in the methodology.

What money can’t change

• A figure. Every invoice goes through the same publication rules, whoever it came from, and every figure is filled in from the data when the site is built.
• An edit or a removal. No partner can change a figure or remove a port or a fee from the site.
• A mention. Our fee guides and answers don’t name, rank or recommend forwarders.

Our owner’s other work

The owner of Freight Benchmarks also runs a separate software and consulting business that works with logistics companies, and a forwarder partner may also be a client of that business. That work is paid separately and doesn’t affect who quotes you or what the figures say.

Questions

Use the contact page.