Cheapest reliable route within your window.
Sea, air, rail, road — picked against the deadline + cargo profile, not the cheapest line on a freight tariff. Lane prices come from our partner forwarder network refreshed quarterly; deadlines come from your input. The recommendation is a single answer with the math, not a multi-option table you have to choose between.
Weight / volume / unit value / FOB origin / target window / preferred Incoterm. The wizard captures these in one pass.
Sea (FCL / LCL), air (consolidated / direct), rail (China–Europe corridor), and road for short EU legs — each priced from the snapshot lane tariff plus the routing calculator overlay.
One mode + lane chosen against the deadline. The reasoning + alternatives are visible but the platform takes a position, with the deterministic price.
Containerised, 4–6 weeks, lowest €/cbm
For 20+ cbm consignments with > 5-week windows. Lane priced from origin port to destination port + inland delivery if required. Bonded warehouse trade-off surfaced if the goods sit > 30 days.
Urgent + light, 3–7 days
For sub-200 kg consumer electronics, samples, or any cargo where time-to-shelf compresses cost-of-capital math. Premium vs sea is itemised line-by-line.
Faster than sea, cheaper than air
Sub-20-day Xi'an → Duisburg / Łódź corridor. Useful when the air premium is too steep but the sea window is too long. Capacity tightens in peak season — flagged in the quote.
Real prices, not estimates.
The routing calculator outputs are pinned to the data snapshot the quote saved against. Open the plan six months later and the original lane price is still there, alongside the live one — drift surfaced explicitly.