A manufacturer in Germany needs a forwarder to handle a first shipment into West Africa. An online retailer is tired of surprise customs charges and wants a broker who explains the paperwork upfront. A trading company is looking for a partner who can consolidate small loads out of a major port every week. Each of them starts with a search, and the forwarder they contact is usually the first one that looks competent, responsive and specialised in their lane.
You have decided you no longer want those enquiries going to competitors. That leaves a practical question: which plan? This guide helps you decide between Presence, Momentum, Flood and the two exclusive plans, based on your size, your growth plans and how crowded your market already is.
The plans at a glance
Every Traffic Engine plan sits on the same foundation: a one-time setup of €1,500 (with the Visibility Audit deducted if you start within 30 days), then a monthly fee, a 12-month commitment and a measured review at three months. What changes is the intensity of the work and the position you hold in your sector.
| Plan | Positioning | Per month | Year one (setup included) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Presence | Entry seat, steady baseline visibility | €1,100 | €14,700 |
| Momentum | Growth seat, the most common choice | €1,900 | €24,300 |
| Flood | Intensive seat | €3,500 | €43,500 |
| Momentum Exclusive | Sector locked, growth pace | €3,900 | €48,300 |
| Flood Exclusive | Sector locked, intensive pace | €5,900 | €72,300 |
These are Traffic Engine's own prices as shown on the offer page, which also lists them in pounds, dollars, Canadian dollars and dirhams. They are not a benchmark of what other providers charge.
Presence: be found where buyers look
Presence suits the forwarder starting from a low base. Your business is licensed, reliable and well known at the port, yet almost invisible to anyone who does not already know your name. The first goal is simple: appear when an importer searches for a customs broker or freight partner in your area, and give overseas buyers something credible to find before they trust you with a container.
It is also the sensible plan for a small team that cannot take on many new accounts at once. If you have a handful of coordinators and every new client needs days of onboarding, there is no point paying for a volume of enquiries you cannot service. Presence lays the groundwork and lets you scale at your own pace.
Momentum: grow the client book
Momentum is the most common choice, and for good reason. It fits the established forwarder that wants new accounts every month: growing importers, shippers switching after a bad experience, overseas firms entering a new market. You have the capacity to manage more files and you want growth to come from inbound enquiries rather than from cold outreach alone.
In freight, a good account is rarely a one-off. It is a relationship that can run for years, one shipment after another. That is why the lifetime value of a client matters far more than the first invoice. Run your own numbers through the calculator on the offer page and you will see how few new accounts it takes to cover a year of Momentum.
Flood: strong competition, strong ambition
Flood is for businesses that want to dominate their lane: a forwarder operating across several ports or countries, a trading company covering multiple markets, or a firm up against competitors that are already highly visible. On busy trade routes, the competition for searches around customs clearance and freight is fierce. Flood brings the intensity that kind of market demands.
Choose Flood only if you can turn a heavy flow of enquiries into signed business: a sales desk that replies quickly, fast quotes, clean follow-up. Without that, the investment outruns your ability to benefit from it.
The exclusive plans: lock the sector
Each sector has 3 standard seats per area. While none has been signed in freight and trading for your area, you can reserve the whole sector with Momentum Exclusive or Flood Exclusive: Kolonell will not work with any competitor in your vertical for the length of your commitment. The option disappears as soon as a first standard seat is signed. Our guide on sector exclusivity for a freight forwarder explains when it is worth the price.
How to decide in practice
Work through four questions in this order.
- How many new accounts can you absorb each month without service slipping? If the honest answer is two or three, Presence or Momentum will do.
- What is a client worth over a year? The longer and more profitable the relationship, the easier a more intensive plan is to justify.
- Are your competitors already visible? If the same names come up every time, you will need more intensity to break through.
- Is the sector still open in your area? If so, exclusivity is an option that will not stay available for long.
To place these figures in your overall spend, read our guide on setting a visibility budget as a freight forwarder, and the one that explains why seats are limited per sector.
Start with the audit
You do not have to choose blind. The Visibility Audit, at €690 and delivered within 48 working hours, shows where you stand against other forwarders in your area, the potential of your sector and an action plan. The right plan follows naturally from that, and the audit fee is deducted from the setup if you start within 30 days. See the offer and check which seats are still open, or message Kolonell on WhatsApp for a reply within 24 working hours.