Spot Quotes

Spot Quotes help teams collect carrier interest, compare bids, and award shipment coverage before dispatch.

When to use spot quotes

Use Spot Quotes when carrier pricing is not final, multiple carriers should bid, or a customer request needs fast market feedback.

Quote workflow

1. Confirm the active team when team controls are shown.
2. Create a spot quote with customer, lane, timing, equipment, and pay details.
3. Invite carriers or collect bids.
4. Review bid amount, carrier details, notes, and timing.
5. Award the best bid.
6. Confirm carrier, driver, dispatch, and document requirements.
7. Continue the shipment workflow as your team normally does.

Tabs and organization

Spot quotes may be grouped as active, completed, lost, or all. Use filters and sorting to find quotes by customer, lane, status, assigned user, or timing.

When teams are enabled, the selected Teams view controls which spot quotes are visible. If an awarded quote or built load is missing, switch Teams to All teams or confirm which team owns the quote.

Required quote details

Pickup and delivery stops need city and state or province. Search and select a suggested location when possible so ARK TMS saves its country and postal code when available with the stop. New expedited quotes may default to Sprinter Van; choose a different equipment type or leave vehicle type blank when that is what should be saved.

When multi-currency is enabled, the spot load currency controls customer quote amounts. Carrier bids can use their own bid currency.

Bid review

Consider price, carrier history, availability, service fit, timing, notes, and any customer requirements before awarding. When market intelligence is available, compare bids against lane history, recent rates, and carrier performance context.

For existing carriers, search by name, DOT, or MC number and select the carrier record. For new carrier bids, enter a carrier name plus either DOT or MC number.

Bid cards show Non-onboarded when the bid is not linked to an existing carrier record. Review DOT or MC details before awarding, then complete carrier setup when the shipment moves forward.

Bid currency is preserved separately from the spot load currency. If multi-currency is disabled, existing non-USD bids keep their stored currency for review and editing.

Add the carrier dispatcher email when the bid may be held after quoting the customer. Quote and Hold requires a valid dispatcher email on the selected bid.

When route data is available, the customer quote modal can prefill Transit Time. Review the hours, minutes, mileage, vehicle type, and quote amount before sending.

Sent customer quote emails use the sending organization and lane in the subject. Customer replies go to the user who sent or resent the quote.

Customer quote revisions

Open Quote History to review sent versions. The current pending quote can be edited with Edit Quote, then Save and Resend updates the current quote and sends the customer a new email while the quote remains pending.

Historical versions are read-only. Use Restore as New Version when an older quote should become the starting point for a revised customer quote.

Lost quotes

Use Mark as Lost for new, quoting, or quoted opportunities that will not move forward. Record the reason and lost-to-competitor flag when known. Reopen a lost quote to return it to active work.

After award

Won spot quotes can be converted into loads when you have load creation permission. Choose Build Load, review the prefilled customer, lane, stops, rate, carrier, driver, dispatch, and document details, then create the load.

After the load is created, ARK links it back to the spot quote and opens the load workflow with dispatch details prefilled from the awarded bid. A spot quote can only build one linked load; if a linked load already exists, open the linked load instead.

Review the rate confirmation before sending, and make sure tracking expectations are clear before pickup.

Reporting

Use Spot Quote Reports to review quote volume, awarded loads, win rate, funnel movement, saved filters, exports, and print-ready summaries.

Load-board posting

When load-board posting is enabled, posting actions may show provider status and Post, Update, Refresh, or Remove options for providers such as Sylectus and Truckstop after a quote becomes an active load. Posting can be blocked until stop city, state, and arrival start times are complete.

For Sylectus, select stop suggestions across the United States, Canada, and Mexico when possible so the full locality and country reach the provider. ASAP or direct spot quote stops can post without customer-visible appointment times; ARK TMS uses saved route duration when available and otherwise generates provider-only times. Standard pickup and delivery stops still need scheduled times before posting.

Sylectus posts use the organization's Sylectus Bill To default, a server-generated 15-minute visible-until window, and external spot quote notes. Offer rate, currency, Auth PAB contact, Bill To, and New Authority are not edited from the posting modal.

Truckstop posts require organization setup plus a Truckstop user OAuth connection for the person posting. Organization credentials and legacy post-as mappings do not replace the user's connection. Truckstop postings are public by default unless private posting is selected. Remove a Truckstop posting from the provider before treating a failed or stale posting as cleared.

Posting can also be blocked when the scheduled cutoff time has already passed. This cutoff applies to new posts; existing provider posts can still be updated or removed after the local pickup timing becomes stale. Previously failed posting attempts remain in Attention until the issue is resolved or the load is removed from the provider.

Common issues

• No carriers invited: confirm the carrier list and contact details.
• New carrier bid blocked: enter carrier name and either DOT or MC number.
• Quote and Hold blocked: add a valid dispatcher email to the awarded bid.
• Bid not visible: refresh the quote list and check filters.
• Edit Quote missing: confirm the selected quote is the current pending customer quote.
• Award blocked: confirm the quote is still active and user permissions allow awarding.
• Posting blocked: confirm stop city, state or province, country, scheduled times, and scheduled cutoff timing. Truckstop users must connect their own account.
• Sylectus invalid stop pairs: select the correct location suggestion, confirm standard stops have scheduled times, and keep stops in sequence.
• Price changed after award: update the load before dispatch and keep customer and carrier records aligned.