Guide
Charges that were never on the quote
A charge appearing nowhere on the quotation is the most common trigger for questioning a freight bill, and the one where importers most often ask the wrong question. Some charges genuinely cannot be quoted before the shipment happens. Others could have been, and their absence is the point.
Read the exclusions before you read the invoice
Most freight quotations carry a list of what they do not include, and it is usually the least-read part of the document. Customs duty, examination fees, storage, demurrage, detention and government charges are commonly excluded by name.
A charge appearing in that list was disclosed, even though it was not priced. The question about it is not "why is this here" — that has been answered — but "is this the amount actually incurred", which is a receipt question.
That distinction saves real goodwill. Asking why an excluded charge appeared reads as though you did not read the quotation, and it costs you credibility on the charges that genuinely have no explanation.
Three reasons a charge can be absent
Once the exclusions are set aside, the remaining unquoted charges fall into a small number of categories, and each calls for a different question.
Why a charge might not be on the quote
- Not knowable in advance — a customs examination is ordered by the authority, not by the forwarder. Ask for the notice and the receipt, not for a justification.
- Contingent on what happened — storage, demurrage and detention depend on timing after booking. Ask for the daily rate, the free-time allowance, and the dates the count was made against.
- Knowable and simply not quoted — terminal handling, a documentation fee, a CFS charge. These exist on every shipment of that type, and their absence is worth asking about plainly.
- The quotation had expired — a rate that lapsed before sailing is not a rate anyone is held to. Check the validity date first, because it can account for the whole variance.
The quotation's silence is itself information
A charge that is neither priced nor excluded is the most useful thing to find. It means the quotation gave you no way to anticipate it — not by naming a rate, and not by warning you it fell outside the scope.
Raising that is not an accusation. Rate quotation in freight is genuinely difficult and omissions are usually ordinary. But a charge that was knowable, unpriced and undisclosed is a fair thing to ask about — and the right place to fix it is the next quotation, not this invoice.
The cheaper moment is before you book
Every question above is answerable from the quotation alone, before the shipment moves. A charge you get in writing before booking costs nothing. The same charge questioned after the invoice arrives costs a negotiation, and often you lose it — the work is done, the goods have moved, and the leverage went with them.
The practical version is a short list of questions sent back with the booking: what is the free time, what is the daily rate after it, what is charged at cost against receipts, and what is excluded. Four answers in writing remove most invoice surprises entirely.
Common questions
Does a charge have to be on the quote to be payable?
Not necessarily. Quotations routinely exclude charges by name without pricing them, and some charges cannot be known in advance at all. What the quotation does establish is what you were given a way to anticipate, which is why the exclusions list matters as much as the rates.
What if the quotation had expired before the shipment sailed?
Then it is not a rate for that shipment, and the gap between it and the invoice is not really a variance. Check the validity clause before anything else — it can account for the entire difference and it is the first thing a provider will point to.
Which unquoted charges are worth raising?
The ones that were knowable in advance and were neither priced nor excluded — terminal handling, documentation, CFS handling on an LCL shipment. Charges depending on events after booking are better handled by asking for the rate and the day count than by asking why they were not quoted.
A note on what this is
This guide describes how freight charges are commonly evidenced. It is general information, not legal advice, and it does not describe the terms of your particular agreement with your provider.