For a ship chandler, quoting is the business. Every order starts as a request for quotation dropped into the inbox, usually while a vessel is already steaming toward the port, and the chandler who returns an accurate quote first is the one most likely to win it. Yet the work between "RFQ received" and "quote sent" is still done by hand at most yards: reading the lines, looking up codes, checking prices, adding margin, and rebuilding the whole thing into a formatted reply. This guide breaks that process into its six stages, shows where the time actually goes, and explains how RFQ-to-quote automation compresses a day of work into minutes.
The six stages of the process
Whether an RFQ has ten lines or five hundred, it moves through the same six stages. Understanding each one is the first step to finding where you are losing time and orders.
1. Receive and log the RFQ
RFQs arrive by email, often as attachments in every format imaginable: spreadsheets, PDFs, scanned images and plain text pasted into the body. The first job is simply to notice it, log it against the vessel and port, and start the clock. At a busy chandler, RFQs compete with dozens of other emails, and one that sits unopened for a few hours has often already lost.
2. Parse and code every line
Each line item has to be read and matched to what you actually stock or can source. The reliable way to do this is by IMPA code matching or its ISSA equivalent, so "SAFETY GLOVES, LEATHER, SIZE 10" resolves to a single unambiguous catalogue item. Buyers rarely send clean codes, so this stage is mostly interpretation: decoding abbreviations, guessing at units, and reconciling a description with the right product. It is the single largest sink of time and the most common source of costly errors.
3. Source and price each item
With items identified, the chandler checks availability and cost — from stock, from a standing price list, or by pinging sub-suppliers for the lines they do not hold. For a large provisions-and-stores RFQ this can mean chasing several suppliers across time zones before a single price is firm.
4. Apply margin and rules
Cost becomes price when margin, currency, customer-specific agreements and port surcharges are layered on. Done in a spreadsheet, this is where quiet mistakes creep in: a stale price, a broken formula, a missed line. Every one of those either erodes the margin you keep or prices you out of the order.
5. Format and return the quote
The priced list is rebuilt into the buyer's expected format — often their own template — and sent back. Presentation counts: a clean, complete, correctly referenced quote signals a chandler the buyer can trust with the vessel.
6. Send, follow up and convert
The quote goes out, and the chandler follows up, answers questions and, when accepted, converts it into a purchase order and delivery. The faster stages one to five run, the more time is left for this stage — the one that actually wins business.
Where the hours disappear
Ask any chandler where their quoting day goes and the answer is the middle of the process: parsing, coding and pricing. Retyping a PDF into a spreadsheet, looking up IMPA codes one at a time, and reconciling a customer's odd descriptions against a catalogue can turn a few-hundred-line RFQ into hours or even a full day of work. That is time during which the vessel keeps sailing and competitors keep quoting. The two costs are always the same: delay, which loses the order to whoever replied first, and error, which loses it to a wrong price or a wrong item — and can put the wrong goods on a ship.
Why speed is the whole game
Ships run to fixed port windows. A buyer sending an RFQ to several chandlers will usually order from the first credible, complete quote back, not the cheapest one that arrives a day late. That makes turnaround time the lever that decides win rate. Cutting quote time is not a back-office nicety; it is the most direct way a chandler can win more of the RFQs already landing in the inbox. You can put rough numbers on it with our RFQ savings calculator.
How automation compresses the process
RFQ-to-quote automation does not replace the chandler's judgement; it removes the mechanical work around it. Software reads the RFQ straight from the inbox in whatever format it arrives, extracts and codes each line to IMPA or ISSA, applies your own price lists and margin rules, and produces a formatted quote in minutes — while flagging any line it cannot match with confidence for a person to check. Stages two, three and four, the ones that eat the day, collapse into a review step. The chandler still owns pricing and the final call; they just reach it in minutes instead of hours. That is exactly what Tidal ship chandler software and the wider maritime procurement platform are built to do.
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