The freight marketplace where carriers compete for your cargo
Get freight quotes online and save the week of chasing forwarders. Verified carriers bid, and you choose on price, transit time and record.
No credit card needed. Nothing is booked until you accept a bid.
- Free for shippers, no booking fee
- Door-to-door, duty paid, or into Amazon FBA
- Every carrier licensed, insured and screened
Buying freight today
Freight is still bought blind
A shipment worth tens of thousands is booked on the strength of an email and a number. What that number covers, and who is behind it, is left for you to find out once the container is at sea.
Quotes you cannot compare
Every forwarder prices its own way. What is included changes from one email to the next, so the lowest figure is rarely the lowest cost.
No way to know who you are hiring
A price says nothing about whether the carrier delivers on time, holds the licence the route requires, or is insured for what you ship.
Costs that appear after you commit
Duty, destination charges and inspection fees surface once the goods are already moving, when there is no longer anything to negotiate.
How freight bidding works
One shipment in. Competing bids out.
Ebbrate turns a request for freight quotes into an open auction. Every carrier sees the same shipment and the same standing price, and the only way to win it is to beat that price.
- 1
Post the shipment once
Cargo, origin, destination and terms. Posting is free and commits you to nothing.
- 2
Carriers bid against each other
Each new bid has to beat the best one standing, so the price moves in one direction while the auction is open.
- 3
Choose, book and track
Compare the bids side by side, accept the one you prefer, then follow every milestone, document and payment in one place.
Inside the marketplace
Built for people who answer for the cargo
Everything a digital freight marketplace should give a shipper, and the three things the others leave out: who the carrier is, what the price is made of, and what happens when something goes wrong.
01
A live auction instead of a quote request
You watch the price fall rather than wait for replies. The board shows every bid as it lands, and one deadline that everyone can see.
- The price is set by competition, not by negotiation
- One closing time, shown as a countdown and as a date
- You are never obliged to accept a bid
02
Know the carrier before you choose it
Every bid arrives with the carrier’s record attached, so the cheapest offer and the safest offer can be told apart.
- A score earned on delivered shipments, with the formula published
- Licence and cargo insurance checked before a carrier can bid
- Every party screened against restricted-party lists
03
A price you can read line by line
A bid is the sum of its legs, each stated on its own. You see what the freight costs, what the delivery costs and what is duty.
- Origin, main freight, destination and duty shown separately
- Chargeable weight worked out in front of you
- No charge that was not in the bid you accepted
04
Covered when something goes wrong
The carrier is paid only after the claim window closes, so there is always money to settle a claim from. The rules are written down before you book.
- One claim window, with the carrier’s payout held until it ends
- Published rules for customs holds, at export and at import
- Documents, milestones and disputes kept with the shipment
A marketplace that carriers and sellers already rely on
- 12K
- Auctions run
- 50
- Verified carriers
- 2K
- Sellers shipping
- $5M
- Saved against first bids
From the people who ship
Sellers who stopped chasing quotes
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Before your first auction
What shippers ask us first
The rates, the scoring and the claim rules are published in full on the pages for sellers and carriers.
Who is Ebbrate for?
Sellers and importers who move cargo across borders, and the licensed carriers and forwarders who move it for them. If you ship pallets or containers internationally and want more than one price for the job, it is built for you.
What does it cost?
Posting a shipment and collecting bids is free for sellers. The carrier that wins pays a commission on the service it sells, and never on duty it only passes through. Every rate is published before anyone commits.
How are carriers vetted?
A carrier cannot bid until its company documents, operating licence and cargo insurance have been checked, and it is screened against U.S. restricted-party lists. Its score is then earned shipment by shipment, and the formula behind it is public.
How is a freight marketplace different from a freight forwarder?
A forwarder quotes you its own price. A freight marketplace puts your shipment in front of many licensed forwarders and carriers at once, and on Ebbrate they bid against each other in the open. The carriers still do the physical work; competition sets what you pay for it.
How do I get freight quotes online?
Post the shipment once: cargo, origin, destination and terms. Every verified carrier that serves the lane can bid on it, and the bids arrive on one board, itemised the same way, so you compare like for like instead of reconciling emails.
Do I have to accept the lowest bid?
No. You may accept any bid on the board, or none. Each bid shows the carrier’s score, on-time record and transit time, so you can weigh price against reliability.
What happens if cargo is damaged, lost or held at customs?
You file a claim within the claim window, and the carrier’s payout is held until that window closes. Customs holds follow published rules that say who bears the cost, depending on whether the goods or the carrier’s filing was the cause.
What happens after I accept a bid?
The shipment is booked with that carrier at that price, and every other bid is declined. A delivery plan appears on the shipment page with each milestone the carrier must report, from collection at your supplier to delivery, and the documents for customs travel with it. The carrier is paid only after your claim window has closed, so if something arrives damaged or short there is money to settle it from.
Can I ship straight to an Amazon FBA warehouse?
Yes. Choose an Amazon fulfilment centre as the destination and enter its code from your Amazon shipment plan; the address fills in from our checked directory. Only carriers approved to deliver into Amazon on that lane are invited to bid, so every price on the board comes from someone who does that work. If the code is not in our directory yet, type the address Seller Central gives you.
Do you cover shipping from China to the USA?
Yes. Freight from China and Southeast Asia to the United States is the core of the marketplace, by sea, air, rail and road, door to door or into Amazon fulfilment centres. The DDP calculator lists every lane open right now.
Put your next shipment up for bids
It takes a few minutes to post, costs nothing, and you decide whether to book.