AI quoting for dock and gangway manufacturers

Get your dock and gangway price in before the other fabricators.

A town, a port or a marina's engineer posts a bid package, and several fabricators and marine contractors start reading the same long set of documents. Mavlon's AI Quoting Engine turns that package into a priced draft quote in your own pricing within minutes, so you answer first, bid on more of the work and stop losing jobs to slow quotes. Your estimator checks it and sets the final number.

Book a Demo How we test it →

From a public 179-page waterfront package

p.102The specification names one product for the gangway deck.
p.117The drawing, sheet CM-5.01, calls for grooved timber on the same gangway.
1 sheetThe gangway length, 46 feet, is on exactly one sheet, in the corner of a side view.
SpecThe deflection limit is stated twice on one page: L over 360 and L over 180.

Pages 102 and 117 cannot both be right about the deck, and the deck's weight feeds the float count. The draft prices both readings and writes the question for the engineer, so the call is made before the bid goes in.

Why speed decides who wins

Custom docks are slow to quote, so the first credible price stands out.

Most dock requests are not a length and a width. They arrive inside someone else's bid package. At the waterfront manufacturer in our case study, a custom quote took an estimator an hour or two, and half a day when the job was complex, because the whole package had to be read before there was anything to price. In the public Cape Vincent package, 82 of the 179 pages mention a gangway, a dock or a float. When every bidder has to read that much, the fabricator who answers first, with a price the buyer can trust, gets the next conversation.

82 of 179

Pages in the public Cape Vincent package that mention a gangway, a dock or a float

Half a day

A complex custom quote at our waterfront customer, before the engine

Minutes

From a dock bid package to a priced draft quote

About forty of those pages carry the requirements that set the price: the specification around pages 86 to 104 and the drawings around pages 110 to 117. The deck material, the deflection limit and the gangway length are each settled in a different place, so nobody can price the dock from one section.

The AI Quoting Engine reads the whole package and prices it the way your company prices, with every line tied to its page. Your estimator spends the time on the few calls that move the price, and your quote reaches the contractor or the owner before the others do.

Video: AI Estimating Software Demo: A 179-Page Bid Package to a Draft Quote (4:07)

The nine decisions a dock quote has to make →The waterfront structures case study →

What goes in

Every document in the request settles a different part of the price.

A custom dock is never quoted from a part number. It is quoted from someone else's documents, and the price depends on all of them read together. The first three examples are from the public Cape Vincent package, with their pages.

The specification section

Strength, materials, deflection, freeboard, hardware and finish.

The deflection limit is stated twice on the same page. One paragraph says L over 360 and another says L over 180. One is twice as strict as the other, and it drives the framing.

Town of Cape Vincent, New York, 179 pages

The drawings

Length, widths and the number of units. Quantity is most of the price.

The specification says to see the plans for the gangway length. The real number, 46 feet, sits on exactly one sheet, in the corner of a side view.

Town of Cape Vincent, New York, 179 pages

Drawing against specification

Which material you buy, and what it weighs.

Section 35 50 20 on page 102 names one product for the gangway deck. Sheet CM-5.01 on page 117 calls for grooved timber. The weight feeds straight into the float sizing.

Town of Cape Vincent, New York, 179 pages

Piles and anchoring

Whose scope the piles are, and how many pile guides you supply.

On nearly every public package the piles are by others. The fabricator supplies the pile guides, so the quote carries a guide count that is assumed for budgetary purposes.

Our guide to quoting docks

Loads and water levels

The float count, the freeboard and the length of the gangway.

An accessible gangway may be no steeper than 1 in 12 at the worst water level, unless it is at least 80 feet long. Freeboard is measured to the top of the deck, not to the top of the float.

Our guide to quoting docks

The addenda

What changed since you last priced it.

An addendum can change the decking material after you have priced the first version. The quote has to follow the latest one, and say which one it followed.

Our guide to marine structures

What you get back

A priced dock quote, in your own pricing.

The engine learns how your company prices from your own past bid packages, the quotes you sent and your costing spreadsheets. Every new package then comes back as a draft your estimator can check line by line. The examples below are from the public Cape Vincent package, which you can download from the town's website.

Priced lines with their pages

Every line carries a quantity, a price from your own rates and the page or sheet that asks for it.

1 sheetGangway, 46 feet, read from the side view

Calls priced both ways

Where the documents disagree, the draft carries the likely reading and prices the other one beside it. Flip it and the total moves.

p.102The deck product in the specification, or the grooved timber on sheet CM-5.01

TBD instead of a guess

A line the package does not settle says TBD, so nobody prices a guess into a firm number.

PilesPile diameter, which the package never gives

Questions ready for the engineer

Anything nobody can answer from the documents becomes a question, already written for your reply.

SpecWhich deflection limit governs, L over 360 or L over 180?

Then the quote

Your estimator reviews the draft, settles the calls and sends the quote, while the other fabricators are still reading the specification.

What it does not do

It does not design the dock or replace your engineer's flotation check, it does not set your margin, and it never sends anything to your customer. Your team decides every number that goes out.

How it differs

A dock configurator starts from your range. A custom dock starts from someone else's package.

There are good quoting tools on the market, and each was built for a different kind of request. This is where each one fits, so you can choose the right one for dock and gangway work.

Kind of tool	What goes in	Where the price comes from	Fits best when
Catalogue and distributor quoting toolsUsed by distributors and resellers	Part numbers and product descriptions.	Catalogue list prices, discount tiers and supplier price files.	You resell standard parts, and the price is a list price less a discount.
Configure-price-quote toolsTacton, Salesforce Revenue Cloud, Epicor CPQ	A salesperson picks options from your product catalogue.	Pricing rules you set up for each option.	You sell standard docks from your range that a length and a width describe.
Job-shop quoting softwarePaperless Parts, SecturaFAB, Costimator	Part files and part drawings.	The part's geometry, its operations and your shop rates.	You machine or fabricate single parts from customer drawings.
Quoting inside your ERPJobBOSS², MRPeasy	The materials and routing your estimator types in.	The rates and routings already stored in your ERP.	You run the shop in that ERP and quote work like jobs you have done before.
Drawing data toolsWerk24	Single engineering drawings.	No price. It turns drawings into data for your other systems.	You want drawing data inside your own ERP or quoting tool.
Manufacturing data searchCADDi	Your archive of drawings and manufacturing data.	The past jobs and costs it finds for you.	You quote repeat parts and want to find what you made before.
Should-cost simulationaPriori	3D CAD models.	A simulated cost of making the part.	You run cost engineering or check what suppliers charge.
Mavlon AI Quoting EngineFor custom equipment priced from the customer's documents, not a catalogue	The whole bid package: specification, drawings, bid form, addenda and the covering email.	Your own rate book, costing spreadsheets and past quotes.	You build docks, gangways and other marine structures to an engineer's specification, from bid packages posted by towns, ports and marinas.

We make Mavlon, so read this table with that in mind. Descriptions of other tools come from their own websites in October 2026, and corrections are welcome at atishay@mavlon.co. Many builders use a price list for standard residential docks and Mavlon for the jobs that arrive as a bid package.

Where it fits

Built for the dock packages that take your senior people hours.

Custom work

Mavlon is the right tool when

The request is a bid package from a town, a port or a marina's engineer, and the docks are a few sections inside it.
The drawings and the specification disagree, and you have to ask before you can price.
The lengths and the counts are on the drawings and nowhere in the text.
The piles, the abutment or the utilities are somebody else's scope.
Loads, water levels and the accessible slope decide the float count and the gangway length.

Standard docks

A price list or a configurator fits better when

The customer picks a standard dock from your range, by length and width.
There is no engineer's specification, only a site and a budget.
You sell the same residential systems again and again.
What you are short of is speed on repeat work.

We make Mavlon, so weigh this with that in mind. If most of your quotes are standard docks from a range, a price list will serve you better than we will, and we would rather say so now. Corrections are welcome at atishay@mavlon.co.

Prove it on your own quotes

Score it on dock jobs you have already quoted.

Before you trust it with a live bid, we run it on past jobs your team has already quoted, with the pass mark agreed in writing first.

Pick a product line you quote often, such as floating docks or aluminum gangways.
Set aside past jobs whose quotes the engine never sees.
The engine prices them from the raw documents.
Compare its totals with the prices your team actually sent.

A US manufacturer of engineered waterfront structures went live in production after a test like this. Its drafts land within about 2 to 3 percent of its own price on familiar product lines, and within about 10 to 15 percent on brand-new jobs with many add-ons.

The waterfront structures case study →The pilot protocol →

What we have published so far

A live customer: a US manufacturer of engineered waterfront structures, name withheld at its request.
The Cape Vincent package: 179 public pages read in 44 seconds, with 214 statements each cited to its page.
The Cape Vincent demo video: the same package as a priced draft quote, with representative figures.
Our own mistakes: the engine once read a dock as sitting on plastic tubs when the specification meant encapsulated foam, and priced that job more than 40 percent low.

The pass bar: seven of ten totals within 15 percent, agreed in writing first.

Read before you book

Guides and tools for people who quote docks.

GuideQuoting custom gangways and docksThe nine decisions, read from a public 179-page package.GuideAI for quoting complex marine structuresFour jobs, seven steps, and where software stops.GuideAI quoting for gangways and docks: how it worksWhat the engine does with a package, step by step.ToolDock float calculatorFreeboard under each load, and how many floats you need.ToolADA gangway slope calculatorThe length you need for 1 in 12, and which exception applies.GuideReading bid packagesWhat five real public packages taught us.

What is AI quoting for dock and gangway manufacturers?

It means using AI to read a customer's bid package for docks, gangways or other marine structures, meaning the specification, the drawings and the addenda, and to draft a priced quote from it. Mavlon's AI Quoting Engine does this in the manufacturer's own pricing, with every line tied to the page it came from, so an estimator can check it and send it. Builders who make each dock to an engineer's specification are custom manufacturers, sometimes called engineer-to-order manufacturers.

Is there AI that can quote docks and gangways from a bid package?

Yes. Mavlon's AI Quoting Engine turns a dock or gangway bid package into a priced draft quote in your own pricing within minutes. You can watch it work through the public Cape Vincent package in our demo video, and test it blind on your own past jobs before it touches a live bid. How the blind test works.

Is Mavlon a dock configurator, or takeoff software?

Neither. A configurator starts from a model of your docks and prices the options somebody selects. Takeoff software measures quantities from drawings. Mavlon starts from the customer's documents, works out what is being asked for and prices it, which on a custom dock is the part nobody has a model for.

How is it different from Paperless Parts, SecturaFAB or Costimator?

Those tools price machined and fabricated parts from part files and drawings, using the part's geometry, its operations and the shop's rates. Mavlon prices a whole dock or gangway job from the bid package, meaning the specification, drawings, bid form and addenda, in the manufacturer's own pricing. A job shop quoting single parts is better served by them, and a builder answering marine bid packages is better served by Mavlon.

Does it work out flotation and freeboard?

It reads the loads, the freeboard requirement and the water levels from the documents and shows the page for each. The float count in the draft comes from your own sizing rules, and your engineer's check stays where it is. We also publish a dock float calculator that anyone can use. Open the dock float calculator.

How does it learn our pricing?

From your own records: past bid packages paired with the quotes you sent, your costing spreadsheets and your rate book. Where a rule is not written down anywhere, it becomes a question for your estimator rather than a guess.

Will AI replace our estimators?

No. The AI Quoting Engine drafts the quote, and your estimator checks it, makes the judgement calls and sets the price. It does not set margins or send anything to your customer. What changes is how many requests the same team can answer, and how fast.

Can we not just use ChatGPT for this?

For a short, clean request, a chat assistant can help. On a full bid package it breaks in known places: it cannot hold hundreds of pages at once, it does not tie each requirement to its page, its reading changes from one run to the next, and it fills gaps with guesses instead of flagging them. We wrote up what breaks on real packages. Read what breaks when ChatGPT reads a bid package.

Who is behind Mavlon?

Mavlon, Inc. is a US company founded in 2024 by Atishay Jain, an AI engineer. It builds the AI Quoting Engine for custom manufacturers, and it is live in production with a US manufacturer of engineered waterfront structures. Read that case study.

Questions dock builders ask

What dock and gangway builders ask us first.

Answer the next dock package before the other fabricators do.

Book a demo and watch the AI Quoting Engine turn a dock and gangway bid package into a priced draft quote, with every line tied to its page and every open call priced both ways. An NDA is signed before any document of yours moves.

Book a Demo