Transport tenders and their benefits for industry and commerce

The determining factor for loading companies to advertise their transport volumes is still the transport costs. In order to prevent the outflow of money from their company, there are often strong cost control measures that affect logistics and transport costs. Therefore, an attempt is made to reduce the transport costs or to get a grip. The reduction of transport costs does not necessarily have to go hand in hand with the change of the logistics service provider. To get a neutral market overview, so-called Tender Tools are used. Nevertheless, the motivation for the use can also be a planned change of the logistics service provider. Tendering platforms can help to establish contact with new logistics service providers. Also possible is the use of tendering tools to obtain conditions for new transport routes or changed quality requirements.

However, lowering the cost of transport should not be at the expense of quality for most companies. The reliability of the transport service providers is very important for companies. If there are operational problems in the transportation process, this leads to customer complaints and loss of revenue with a negative impact on the company's development. Price reductions at the expense of transport quality are therefore out of the question for many shippers.

Companies like to work permanently with logistics service providers. They value service providers who can respond flexibly to changes in transport processing. In addition, it is expected that service providers will have an understanding of the company's products and what treatment is required for the transports. Service providers can therefore differentiate themselves from others by communicating that they can deal with shipping conditions of consignors and take quality requirements into account.

So-called spot or ad hoc offers are price inquiries or transport offers for specific individual shipments and transports. Companies get their day-to-day offers for transports in daily business. Even if a company resorts to strategic transportation tenders and has rates available, it may make sense to ask for bulk prices. Since the capacities of the aircraft and ships or their utilization varies considerably, it is always advisable to obtain spot offers as well.

Rate offers are also considered as a freight rate, framework contract or framework agreement, which are valid for a certain time or for certain locations. Transport volumes are usually tendered and awarded for the entire quarter, half year or year. The offered offer items have different calculation bases, eg per shipment or kg, and consideration of different weight, volume ratios of the shipments. From this, concrete freight costs per shipment can be calculated, which also come to billing. This type of freight tender is usually done in a multi-step process.

Shippers who do not have the necessary expertise to carry out operative or strategic freight tenders themselves, or who are too costly or expensive to do so, can resort to various offers with very different technical and content concepts.

Tender Management Software or Tender Management Software are services that perform a multi-level IT-based process and closely assist senders in preparing, collecting, evaluating, analyzing and renegotiating bids. In addition to the software, mostly consultants are involved. Additionally, Excel is used to upload offers. So the solutions are a combination of software, Excel and consulting. The applications are often quite extensive and usually require training or guidance. The use is often high priced and the remuneration depends on the achieved cost reduction. With this compensation model, the tendering providers have an interest in the highest possible transport cost reductions and the focus is not on the quality of the transports. This is disadvantageous for the shipper.

Individualized software from IT companies converts tendering processes tailored to loading companies. However, the corresponding logistics knowledge must already be available for this. In addition, such software projects are associated with relatively high costs.

Freight consultants help companies carry out transport tenders in the form of consulting services. They bring with them the technical know-how and coordinate the tender between the consignor and the logistics service provider. You take over the communication, technical implementation with Excel, including data evaluation and moderation of the entire tender process. The services require intensive communication, are high priced, but very accurate.

Another option for carrying out transport tenders is modern, lean software-as-a-service solutions also called web software. These are web-based applications that are significantly less complex than traditional tendering services. Posting Freight is possible with these tools without costly system implementation or training. At the same time, the user is guided through the tendering process comprehensibly, comprehensibly and efficiently. It also eliminates the need for communication with a consultant and does not complicate communication between shippers and logistics service providers. Shippers therefore retain full process control over their supply chain. These tools include extensive industry knowledge, from which shippers also benefit.

These applications also delineate themselves over the price. They offer subscription models and test phases, so there are no investment costs or contract periods. The cost-benefit ratio is thus correspondingly high.