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Freight RFP Management

Freight RFP management where each low bid is checked against what that carrier accepted as primary on your own freight, and each term in the bid's notes is applied before anyone signs.

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Follow one dry-van bid from bid files to award notices ↓
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The problem

The low bid that wins the lane is the one turned down on a Friday

Bids come back as dozens of spreadsheets. The rate sits in the lane column; the terms that decide whether it is real sit in a notes column, a general terms tab or a covering email: valid with two days' notice, Monday to Thursday only, fuel on our own schedule.

The low bid is compared with the incumbent's rate, never with what that bidder has accepted on the shipper's own freight. Clarifications come back as paragraphs and are scored by whoever reads them. The award goes into the routing guide, and over the year primary carriers turn tenders down and the loads move on the spot market at a premium.

Nobody adds those rejected tenders up against the award, so the saving on the slide the VP approved is not the saving in the books.

Built forShippersTransportation procurement teamsLogistics leadersFreight category analystsFinance partners

The Problem Today

A shipper awards the lowest bids, then carriers reject the tenders their rate or their own terms do not cover.

Worked by hand in spreadsheets

  • Lane file
  • Terms tabs
  • Clarifying
  • Scenarios
  • Terms hide in the marginsA lead-time note or a carrier's own fuel table changes the rate
  • Answers come back as proseEach reply is read and scored by whoever opens it

The Solution

  1. Every bid file read, margins tooRates, notes columns and terms tabs, each cited to its cell
  2. A challenger plays the award forwardEach low bid per mile against what that carrier accepted as primary
  3. Bidders answer in fixed fieldsAnswers change the board only through the fields
  4. The VP signs a frozen awardAfter opening the lanes at risk and the challenger's points

Built-in controls

  • A second signature on every award
  • A bidder sees only its own lanes and rates
  • Leak assumptions labeled, and signed off by the analyst

What You Get

The shipper awards rates tested against its own tender history, before tender season starts.

  • Lanes at risk moved before signingOn price, or on a bidder's own confirmed terms
  • Answers that re-price the bidFixed fields change the board; prose never does
  • A record behind each signatureWho signed, when, and on which evidence
Features

Freight RFP features for shippers, from returned bid files to a signed award

Procurement managers, analysts and logistics VPs use them to run a truckload bid and award rates that hold. The screens follow one dry-van bid from first read to notices.

demoThe shipper, carriers, staff, lanes and rates shown are invented sample data.

  1. 01Award board

    Every bid on a lane on one price line, beside the challenger's argument

    • All-in cost on the shipper's fuel table. A bid on a carrier's own fuel schedule is compared all-in, so a low linehaul on a costlier fuel table cannot win unseen.
    • The bid file's notes beside each rate. Conditions such as a lead time or quick-pay terms sit next to the price, so the condition is read before the lane is awarded.
    • The next bidder whose rate and terms hold. Each flagged lane names its replacement and the yearly cost of moving, so the manager weighs the price of a rate that holds.
  2. 02Tender history

    Low bids compared per mile with the carrier's own primary tender acceptance

    • Primary contract tenders only. Backup and spot loads a carrier chose to take at higher prices are left out, so acceptance means acceptance at a contract rate.
    • Per mile, on lanes of similar length. A bid is judged against lanes the carrier ran at comparable miles in the same region pair, never against a regional average per load.
    • Notice given on each turned-down tender. The log shows the lead time behind each rejection, so a lead-time term in the bid is tested against how the shipper really tenders.
  3. 03Challenger

    Award tested against tender rejections, argued in the carrier's own voice

    • Low bids priced to fail at tender. Lanes bid further below accepted history than the threshold are listed with their spend and the spot cost they could leak.
    • Each bidder's terms applied to every lane it wins. A weekday-only, cutoff-time or loads-per-week term is tested on each lane the bidder would win, against how that lane was tendered last year.
  4. 04Bid file

    Carrier bid files read as they arrived, notes and terms tabs included

    • Each file shown exactly as returned. The analyst checks what the agents read against the bidder's own cells, tab by tab, with each passage they used highlighted.
    • Blanks and insurance read with the rates. Blank cells settled from the file are marked; a bid that fails the insurance terms is excluded with its record.
  5. 05Bid portal

    Carrier bid clarifications asked as fixed fields in the bid portal

    • Drafted by agents, sent by a person. Nothing reaches a bidder until the procurement manager reviews and sends it, and each question carries the round's due time.
    • A price for the condition, asked as a number. A bidder can name the percentage it would add to take short-notice tenders, which re-prices its lanes instead of leaving them conditional.
    • Each bidder's portal shows only its own bid. Each carrier sees its own questions, lanes and notice, and never another bidder's rates.
  6. 06Clarifications

    Bidder answers that re-price lanes, with notes kept for the manager to read

    • Fields flow straight into the board. A confirmed lead time puts each of that bidder's lanes at risk by its share of short-notice tenders, and an accepted fuel table drops the fuel difference from its all-in price.
    • A bidder's own words kept out of the price. A bidder's note never moves a rate or a lane, and the award cannot be submitted until the manager has read its exact words.
  7. 07Your scenario

    Award scenario built by the manager, priced before anything is saved

    • The manager decides which lanes move. Agents propose and move nothing until a person ticks the move, and the reason is written for the VP to read.
    • The figures before the save. Annual cost, planned saving against the baseline, lanes at risk and carrier count are shown before the scenario is kept.
  8. 08Award scenarios

    Four award scenarios played forward into next year's tenders

    • Spot leak drawn on top of contract cost. The expected cost of rejected tenders sits on each bar, so awards are compared on cost after the leak.
    • Lowest cost, incumbents, a regional cap and yours. Keeping incumbents and capping any carrier's share of a region are priced beside the manager's award, against the confirmed baseline.
    • Assumptions labeled wherever they appear. The rejection share and spot premium carry the word assumed and the analyst's confirmation; editing them blocks the award.
  9. 09Approval

    Two-person award approval on a frozen snapshot of the scenario

    • The award freezes at submission. A later steer, bidder answer or assumption edit makes a new draft and clears every signature, so the figure signed is the figure submitted.
    • Approve stays locked until three items are opened. The lanes at risk, the challenger's points and the manager's reasons must each be opened before the approve button works.
    • Nobody approves an award they prepared. The manager who prepared the award cannot sign it, and the VP's signature states that the signer did not prepare it.
  10. 10Award notices

    Award notices that show each carrier only its own lanes and rates

    • Built from the signed snapshot. Each carrier's lanes and rates come from the award the VP signed, so the letters match the decision.
    • Acceptances as fields, declines to the backup. A declined lane moves to its backup carrier at that carrier's bid, and the change in cost shows on the award.
    • Rate load checked by a second person. The analyst prepares the TMS rate load from the signed award and the manager checks it before release.

Four desks share the freight RFP, and what each takes from the board

Each desk sees the same lanes in the bid and decides a different thing.

Transportation procurement managers

Run the bid, rule on the challenger's points, build and submit the award

  • Every bid for a lane on one price line
  • The carrier's objection heard before tender season
  • Answers that re-price bids without reading paragraphs
Freight category analysts

Bid files, clarifications, the leak assumptions and the rate load

  • Each agent's reading cited to the bidder's cell
  • Blank cells settled from the file, the rest asked
  • Assumptions confirmed only after opening the tender history
VPs of logistics

Sign the award as the second person, and approve learned rules

  • Lanes at risk and the manager's reasons, opened before signing
  • An award that cannot change under the signature
  • Learned rules that act only once approved
Finance business partners

Confirm the baseline and test what the planned saving depends on

  • Savings measured against a confirmed baseline
  • What the planned saving depends on, assumption by assumption
  • Cost after the expected spot leak beside contract cost

Four people sign before a lane bid reaches the routing guide

Each starts from an empty reason box, and the audit trail records the meaning of each signature.

Freight category analyst
Sees
The tender history behind the rejection share and the spot premium
Signs
The leak assumptions, and the rate load prepared from the signed award
Finance business partner
Sees
Today's contract rates, lane by lane, fuel excluded
Signs
The baseline each saving is measured against
Transportation procurement manager
Sees
The challenger's points, the bidders' fields and their free-text notes
Signs
The award as submitted, then the check of the rate load
VP of logistics
Sees
The lanes at risk and where each goes, the points and rulings, the manager's reasons
Signs
The award as the second person, which releases the notices
Around the award

Rehearsal, returned bids, a learned rule and the settings behind the award

The screens finance, the analyst, the VP and the administrator open during the same bid.

Rehearse the yearEach scenario played through next year: lanes at risk, leak to spot, cost after the leak and the gap to baseline. The manager's award reads $73.72M, 0 lanes at risk.
What the second signature meansBefore signing, the VP reads what the signature commits to: 1,240 lanes to 33 carriers at $73.72M a year, notices released, and that the signer did not prepare the award.
Bids as they came back38 of 52 invited bidders answered: 30,546 bid lines, 214 notes and exceptions, 612 blank cells. Each row shows lanes bid, notes, eligibility, wins and its question.
A rule learned from three rulingsThree past rulings on low bids taught a rule to weigh tender history in the award. Until the VP approves it, the agents cite the rulings and move nothing.
The bid packageThe schedule from issue to rates in force, the requirements, the lane file and the answered questions. The lanes came from 29,699 loads, 61 duplicate city spellings merged.
Who signs whatThe flag threshold, default assumptions and due days, then the maker and second person for the award, assumptions, baseline, rate load, learned rules, settings and barring a bidder.

demoSample data, from the working solution.

A bid under its own history, a lead-time clause and a backup that was not

What a price-only award would have carried into tender season.

A low bid below the bidder's own record

The low bid on the focus lane came to $2.26 a mile; as primary on nine similar lanes the same carrier accepted $2.55, and 22 of its 24 rejections came with under 48 hours' notice.

A lead-time clause on every lane it wins

One terms tab asked for 48 hours' notice. Once the bidder confirmed it in the fields, all 181 of its lanes in the lowest-cost award counted as at risk.

A backup running the primary's trucks

A draft scenario named a backup on two lanes whose capacity tab said the trucks belonged to the primary. The agents conceded and re-picked from another fleet.

Two bids outside the insurance terms

One bid carried $100,000 of cargo cover against $250,000 required; another carrier's liability insurance on file was canceled. Both were excluded, with the record.

demoSample data, from the working solution.

What procurement teams ask about freight bid management

What is freight RFP management?

Freight RFP management is how a shipper runs its yearly freight RFP, also called a transportation RFP: a lane file, a requirements document and a deadline, answered by carriers and brokers with a rate per lane. This solution runs that bid, tests the award against what each bidder accepted on the shipper's own freight, and leaves the award to two people.

How does this differ from transportation procurement software that optimizes the award?

An optimizer finds the cheapest combination of bids. Here a challenger also plays each award forward against each bidder's primary tender history and its own terms, argues as the carrier's dispatcher would, and names the next bidder whose rate and terms hold.

Where does the tender history come from?

From the shipper's transportation management system: a year of primary contract tenders per bidder, compared per mile on lanes of similar length in the same region pair. Backup and spot loads are left out.

What happens to terms written in a notes column or a terms tab?

The agents read notes columns, terms tabs and capacity tabs, cite each to its cell and apply each term to all the lanes the bidder would win. A term waiting on an answer is listed; a confirmed one counts the lane as at risk.

Is the expected spot leak a forecast?

It is an assumption, labeled as one on every screen: a rejection share and a spot premium the analyst confirms against the tender history. Editing either clears that confirmation and blocks the award until it is given again.

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