Posting an inquiry
Tell the marketplace what you need — pick a type, write a clear ask, optionally name a budget. Matching providers respond, you accept the one you want.
An inquiry is a short, public request for help from a Trade Hub provider. Anyone with a Haubot account can post one. Inquiries are visible to every visitor of /trade-hub?mode=inquiries, but only users with a business profile can post a quote in reply.
Opening the form
Switch to the Inquiries tab on /trade-hub and click + New inquiry in the results header. If you're not signed in, you'll be sent to /login and bounced back to the Inquiries tab afterwards.
The modal that opens has six fields. Three of them are required.
Fields
Type (required)
What kind of provider you're looking for — same seven types as the directory:
- Dealer
- Broker
- Manufacturer
- Service provider
- Logistics provider
- Inspection provider
- Parts supplier
Pick the closest match. The Trade Hub uses this to surface your inquiry in the right country/type filter combinations on the public board.
Title (required)
A one-line summary, ≤ 200 characters. Treat it like an email subject — clear and specific. Compare:
- ❌ "Need help" — too vague to attract responses.
- ✅ "Looking for an excavator broker in Poland for a 320D acquisition"
Description (required)
The detail. Free-form text, no limit. A useful description usually covers:
- What you need (model / spec range / scope of work).
- Where the equipment is or where the service is needed.
- When — your timeline or deadline.
- Constraints — budget hints, certifications required, language, etc.
The more concrete you are, the better the quotes you'll get back.
Country (optional)
ISO country where the work happens. Leaving it blank means any country — providers in any region can respond. Setting it lets country-filtering surfaces (the chip + URL filter) include your inquiry.
City (optional)
A free-text city name to give locals an edge.
Budget + currency (optional)
A decimal amount and a currency picker (the same currency list as listings). If you set the budget, the currency selector becomes active. Showing a budget is strongly encouraged — it filters out providers who can't operate in your range and gets you faster, more useful quotes.
If you genuinely don't know the budget, leave it blank rather than guess — providers read a blank budget as "open" and a wildly wrong number as "amateur".
Examples
A short equipment search:
Title: Looking for a 30-tonne excavator, 2018+, Western Europe
Type: Broker
Country: DE
Budget: 90,000 EUR
Description: Need a Cat 330 or equivalent, year 2018 or newer, max 6,000 hrs. Available for inspection in DE/NL/BE. Not interested in CIS-origin units. Need to close in 3 weeks. Reply with a shortlist + your fee structure.
A logistics request:
Title: Inland transport for two containers, Gdańsk → Poznań
Type: Logistics provider
Country: PL
Description: Two 40-ft HC containers, ETA Gdańsk port 2026-05-22. Need delivery to a customs-bonded warehouse in Poznań within 5 days of arrival. Quote per container, all-in. Customs clearance handled by us.
What happens after you post
- The inquiry is created with status OPEN and shows immediately in the public Inquiries tab.
- Matching providers see it and reply with quotes. Each response shows their business name, message, and optionally a price.
- You can accept one of the responses — that response is marked Accepted, the inquiry auto-closes, and other providers see the inquiry resolved.
- You can also close the inquiry yourself at any point without accepting (e.g. you found someone offline). Reopen it later from your dashboard if needed.
You manage your own inquiries — author and respondent — from /dashboard/trade-hub. See Managing your Trade Hub.
Privacy note
Inquiries are public. Don't post anything you wouldn't share publicly: no internal pricing notes, no specific contract details, no buyer/seller names that aren't yours. Your own author identity is shown only as a first name + your business profile link (if you have one) — full name is never exposed to visitors.