RoRo shipping is a demanding industry where fast and accurate quotes can be the difference between winning and losing a contract. With CPQ technology, you can streamline spot quoting and reduce errors.
Spot quoting in RoRo requires fast answers to a calculation with many variables: vessel capacity, route, vehicle type, season and market conditions. Done in spreadsheets, the price ends up depending on who calculated it, and the discrepancies are hard to spot before they have been invoiced. CPQ, meaning configure, price, quote, moves the rule base out of the sheets and into the system: the salesperson selects route, vehicle type and volume, and the price is set from current rates and approved deviation rules. The main gain we see in RoRo deliveries is not primarily speed, but that quotes end up on the same rule base as the rest of the sales process. That makes it possible to follow a line from quote to booking to invoice, and to track margin on something other than gut feel.
The Challenge of Spot Quoting
Spot quoting in RoRo shipping requires rapid response and accurate calculations based on numerous variables: vessel capacity, route, vehicle type, seasonal variations and market conditions. Manual pricing is time-consuming and error-prone.
Delayed quotes mean lost opportunities. In an industry where speed matters, the ability to deliver precise quotes quickly is a competitive advantage.
How CPQ Transforms the Process
Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) automates the quoting process from start to finish. Salespeople select route, vehicle type and volume, and the system automatically calculates the price based on current rates and rules.
Cartagena CPQ is purpose-built for the RoRo industry and integrated with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales. Quotes are assembled from the same rule base every time, so the price can be traced back to tariff, surcharge and the agreement in force.
Results From the Industry
In the RoRo deliveries we have taken part in, the main gain is that quotes previously calculated in spreadsheets end up on the same rule base as the rest of the sales process. The effect shows up as fewer manual steps and a traceable price basis, not as a single percentage figure. How large the gain is depends on how many tariffs, surcharges and vessel constraints the pricing has to account for.
The depth on RoRo and PCTC does not live here. It lives in CargoVerse, the voyage management and commercial platform Cartagena has built on Dynamics 365, where voyage planning, capacity, agent self-service and lane-metre based pricing are handled together.
Read more: CargoVerse for RoRo voyage and commercial management, CRM and CPQ for shipping and logistics for how we deliver it, and what a Dynamics 365 implementation really costs.
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Frequently asked questions about spot quoting and CPQ in RoRo
What makes spot quoting in RoRo freight demanding?
That the price depends on many variables at once: vessel capacity, route, vehicle type, surcharges and market conditions. The calculation is often done manually by a few experienced people, which makes response time depend on their availability. The complexity is real, but it can be systematised.
What does CPQ concretely do in a quoting process?
It moves pricing logic from spreadsheets and heads into rules the system enforces: valid combinations, surcharges, discount limits and approval routing. The result is that more people can produce a correct quote, and that there is a history of what was actually quoted and by whom.
Why does traceability from quote to booking matter?
Because revenue control requires following a line from what was quoted, to what was booked and invoiced. If quotes sit in email and bookings in another system, reconciliation becomes archaeology. Traceability also makes margin follow-up possible on something other than gut feel.
What is the hardest part of introducing CPQ?
Rarely the technology. The demanding part is agreeing internally on who may deviate from price and by how much, and separating pricing variants that are real from those that are habit. That clarification belongs before the build, and it is valuable regardless of which tool is chosen.
Want faster, more accurate spot quotes?
Cartagena CPQ is purpose-built for the RoRo industry. See how operators assemble quotes from one rule base, with a traceable price basis.
See how Cartagena CPQ worksSources
- Microsoft Learn: Create or edit opportunities in Dynamics 365 Sales
- Microsoft Learn: What is Microsoft Dataverse?
- Microsoft Learn: Use the Microsoft Dataverse Web API
Sources retrieved and checked 30 August 2026.