THE CALCULATOR
What does re-typing the quote actually cost?
Between the customer’s yes and a working job order sits pure data entry — every field re-keyed from a quote that already knew it. Set the sliders to your desk; the ticket on the right prices a year of it.
Anchors: 15–30 min manual entry per booking (industry workflow descriptions, consistent with DCSA’s account of multi-round booking re-entry); 1–4% general manual data-entry error benchmarks. Every input is yours — adjust to your desk.
Watch a yes become a job — liveWhy 15–30 minutes is the norm
Creating a booking by hand means re-typing parties, lane, cargo and rates into the TMS field by field — and DCSA characterises ocean booking as needing multiple rounds of manual data entry for a single booking. The 15–30 minute range comes from industry workflow descriptions, consistent with that account.
Why entry errors compound
The job order is the operational spine: documentation, customs filings and billing all inherit its fields. A digit wrong at entry resurfaces as a B/L correction, an amendment fee, a customs query. General manual data-entry benchmarks run 1–4% — a cross-industry figure, not freight-specific — so set the slider to what your desk actually sees.
Why the fix is flow-through, not faster typing
A faster typist still transcribes. The accepted quote already holds nearly every field the JO needs, so the durable fix is letting that data flow through — quote to job order to carrier booking — with nobody re-keying in between. McKinsey estimates generative AI can cut documentation lead time by up to 60%; zero re-keys is where that starts.