Who it is for

Three situations, one document.

Only the first of these is about expansion. The other two are about lanes you already run, and between them they are most of what an exporter actually needs.

About the numbers below

These are worked illustrations built on the sample report, not accounts of named customers. Route World is at prototype stage and has no case studies yet. The figures are realistic and the mechanics are exactly what the service does, but nobody in these examples is real.

Situation one

The market you cannot price

"I would sell to Jakarta at cost just to be in that market once. But I have never shipped there, so I would have to call forwarders who know I have never shipped there, who know I will only call three or four, and who know it is a headache. So I do not do it."

This is the situation the company was built around. A buyer asks for a delivered price into a country you have never served. You cannot quote until you know the freight. Getting the freight means an evening of calls to people with no incentive to help you, so the opportunity dies quietly on your desk and nobody records the loss.

The cost is invisible, which is why it persists. Nothing on your P&L says "markets not entered because freight was unknown."

What the report does

Eight forwarders on an identical brief, including three based in the destination market you do not have contacts in. Five days later you have four real prices, the documentation your consignee needs, and the two things about that corridor that would have caught you out.

Lane: Mersin to Jakarta
Report fee: $1,200
Freight found: $116.82/t
What it unlocks: The quote

The saving against the informal indication was about $1,670 on this shipment. That is not really the point. The point is that the offer could be made at all.

Situation two

The lane you never test

"We have used the same forwarder on this route for six years. They are good. I have absolutely no idea whether the rate is good."

This is the one people underestimate, and it is the answer to "do I need this if I am not opening new markets."

A standing lane is a rate nobody re-tests, because re-testing means annoying a relationship that works and spending a week collecting quotes you may not act on. So the rate drifts. Two or three percent a year is normal and invisible, and on a lane you run every quarter it compounds into a number that would make you angry if you ever saw it written down.

What the report does

The same eight approaches, run against a lane you already know. The output is not a switching recommendation, it is a benchmark: here is what the market says your route costs, and here is where you sit against it.

Annual freight on the lane: $480,000
Drift found: 6%
Annualised gap: $28,800
Report fee: $2,400

And if we find nothing? You get the fee back and you keep the report. "You are paying market" is a real answer. It is worth buying once a year to stop wondering, and it is worth showing your board.

Worker checking documents against inventory

Situation three

The renewal you walk into empty-handed

"They send the new rates in November. I either accept them or I spend two weeks I do not have proving they are wrong."

Procurement teams at large companies run a competitive tender before every renewal, as a matter of routine, and their suppliers know it. Mid-size exporters almost never do, because collecting the quotes costs more time than the saving feels worth. Your forwarder knows that too.

The asymmetry is the whole problem, and it is fixable for the price of one report.

What the report does

Four real, current, comparable quotes on your own lane, timed to land a fortnight before the renewal conversation. You do not have to switch. You have to be able to show that you could.

Prepared before: Annual renewal
Competing quotes: 4
Typical outcome: Rate held or cut
Switching required: None

Most exporters who do this keep their existing forwarder. That is a good result. The saving comes from having the paper, not from changing supplier.

The fourth reason, which nobody asks for

The mistake that costs more than the freight.

Every report includes the documentation and permit chain, and who has to obtain each item. This is the part customers do not order and most often thank us for.

On the sample shipment, the item most likely to hurt was not the rate. It was the consignee's hazardous substance import registration, which is the importer's obligation and therefore the thing an exporter never checks. Cargo arriving before that filing is complete sits at the port.

Demurrage runs from roughly $150 to $450 per container per day, with detention on top, and it escalates in tiers once the free days are gone. Five containers held a fortnight is comfortably five figures before storage, and potentially a missed delivery date on top.

One avoided hold pays for ten reports. That is the argument we make least often and believe most.

Inspector in protective equipment checking packaged cargo

Being straight with you

When you should not buy this.

We would rather tell you now than take a fee and disappoint you.

Cargo under about $50,000. The full outreach costs more than it can realistically save you. Take a Lane Check instead, or nothing.
Standard containers on well-traded lanes. Freightos and its competitors have already squeezed those. Use them, they are good at it.
Total annual freight spend under roughly $250,000. The maths does not carry a repeat habit at that volume.
You need it tomorrow. Five working days is set by how long forwarders take to price complex cargo, not by us. Rush turnaround exists but it thins the field.

If any of those describe you, say so on the brief and we will tell you honestly whether to proceed.

Start here

Brief one shipment. See what the market actually says.

Ten minutes to describe a lane, and almost nothing is compulsory. Real quotes in five working days, or your money back if we find you nothing better.

Start a Lane Report Read a sample first