Comparing box quotations is harder than comparing cartons, because the product is a design and the design is not fixed until the drawing is agreed. A low quotation is usually a thinner box, a simpler interior, or a set of things not included. Learning to spot which of the three is the single most useful purchasing skill in this category.
Line one: the box, and what it actually contains
A box price should state the internal dimensions, the wall construction and the base. If it states only external dimensions, the internal volume is whatever is left after two wall thicknesses, which is where a lot of quiet disagreement starts. Ask for internals as the quoted figure.
Line two: the interior
Dunnage is frequently quoted separately, and sometimes not quoted at all because it was not asked for. A box price without the internal set is not comparable with one that includes it. This is where the largest differences appear, and it is also where the largest durability differences appear, so the cheapest interior is rarely the cheapest over a fleet life.
Line three: tooling and moulds
One-off tooling for printed parts, cut profiles and moulded components. It should be listed with the price and with ownership stated. Where tooling is amortised into a unit price, ask what happens to the price if volumes change, because a price based on an assumed volume is a price that moves.
Line four: MOQ and price breaks
Most of these boxes have a sensible minimum order, and the price curve is steepest for the first hundred. Ask for the unit price at the quantity you will actually buy in year one, not at the quantity that shows the best number. A quotation built on a volume you will not reach is a quotation that gets renegotiated in month three.
Line five: freight, packaging and delivery
Boxes arrive nested or flat, which means the delivery is usually cheap and occasionally surprising when it is not. Check whether delivery is included, and check the lead time separately, because the lead time is what usually decides whether the project is feasible rather than the price.
Line six: spares
Pins, hinges, corner blocks, lid and dunnage components, priced individually. If spares are not on the quotation, they will be discovered at the first repair, at which point their price is whatever the supplier says it is. Asking for the spares list with the quotation is free and it changes the running-cost estimate materially, as described in budgeting spares and repairs.
The comparison that is actually fair
Put the box, the interior, the spares allowance, the expected life in trips and the loss rate into one table, and compare cost per trip rather than cost per box. Two suppliers quoting the same box at different prices will usually produce a cost per trip that is closer than the headline suggests, and occasionally inverts. That table is worth building once and reusing for every subsequent order.
What to do when the cheapest quotation is also the thinnest
Say so, in writing, and ask what the next thickness up costs. Most suppliers will have a version that is five to ten per cent more expensive and materially more durable. Buying down to a price is how a fleet ends up being replaced in year three and being blamed on the material rather than the specification.
Questions to ask before signing
Three, in this order. What is the internal dimension, not the external. What is included in the interior, and is it priced. And what is the lead time from order to first delivery, stated separately from the quote validity. Those three questions resolve most of the ways a quotation turns out to have meant something other than what was assumed.
Ask them in writing. A verbal answer about internal dimensions or an interior that is included is not something that can be held to later, and the moment to have that conversation is before the order rather than after the first delivery.
What we can do
We quote PP honeycomb board boxes with internals, spares and tooling listed separately, and we will put a cost per trip against the quote if you give us the expected number of trips. Ask for the comparison table.