How companies can carry out freight tenders or tenders for transports in a beneficial way

The process described does not have to be performed in an exact form. Shippers take away some of these steps, combine them, or adapt to their internal processes.

This step is about obtaining written information about the logistics service provider. These then have the opportunity to present their company including the way of working, processes, corporate network, sales and business figures. This includes information such as payment terms and assumptions of liability. This serves to qualify logistics service providers and to build up a pool of logistics partners, which can be included in the later rounds of the freight tender. Logistics service providers that are out of the question due to their corporate structure are already leaving the scene.

Logistics service providers are invited to explain their logistics concept. It is about them to describe the logistical processes and procedures in more detail. Which forward, main, and delayed modes of transport are used, how are consignments transshipped and packed, how are transports secured and insured, which carriers and airlines are used, etc. From this, shippers can deduce which strengths and weaknesses logistics service providers have and which form you can use in your own transport processing.

In order for logistics service providers to be able to submit complete freight offers, they must receive certain information. This requires shippers to download, prepare, and consolidate their shipping data from Transport Management System (TMS) or Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. Furthermore, shippers must determine which relations or Tradelanes they want to query, which cost points are to be offered, with which calculation bases (eg per shipment, container, TEU, B / L, AWB, customs clearance, weight, volume ratio in each case for different carriers and relations ). This includes a detailed listing of the shipment structure with number of shipments, dangerous goods class, security status, Incoterms (International Commercial Terms) and information on stackability. All these parameters and information should be set as precisely as possible in a quotation structure, so that the logistics service providers can submit complete offers, there are no queries or increased communication effort, and submitted offers are really comparable. Otherwise, it is neither possible for the service providers to submit correct freight offers, nor can they be adequately analyzed and compared by the shipper.

The documents are then sent to the pre-selected, qualified logistics service providers or deposited in the tender portals, tender portals and tender platforms.

Many freight tenders and tendering platforms require logistics providers to register first. There you will find all the tender documents including the Excel sheets, Excel offer templates, Excel and offer matrices. Here the logistics service providers can view all supply-relevant data and specifications, fill out, edit, control and submit the quotation tables.

The freight offers submitted by the logistics service providers can be analyzed and compared with various dashboards, standard reports and reports after the first offer has been submitted. For an even more individual analysis of the offer data, these can be exported to Excel. What makes the number analysis difficult is price information that has been submitted as text. Thus, individual costs, such as demurrage, detention, storage-free time, demurrage, diesel and fuel floaters or even exchange rate conversions can differ significantly. Even though these costs may not be standard for transport, they should be taken into account in the award of transport or selection of logistics partners.

After the qualitative evaluation of the transport service and the efficiency of the logistics service providers has been made and the freight rates and freight conditions compared, the conclusion of the freight tendering process begins. Individual discussions are held with the logistics service providers. Individual aspects of the logistics concept can be changed and cost elements renegotiated. This can also be done in several rounds or in the form of transport auctions. Finally, shippers make the decision under what conditions and for what periods they want to work with certain logistics service providers. For this purpose, transport contracts are created and surcharges are granted.

Generally, all tendering data of the logistics providers are archived and can be viewed by the shipper at any time. The agreed conditions are usually stored under further Excel processing steps in the various IT systems of the shipper, so that the conditions for product costing, freight auditing, freight control and billing control are available. This ensures transparency and audit security.

A freight tender is therefore very complex even in its sub-steps and requires a high degree of transport and freight forwarding knowledge. In addition, you have to be able to know and operate your IT systems very well. Also the data handling and the data preparation presupposes appropriate knowledge. All in all, it is quite a complicated process that many shippers underestimate. So he is carried out by these, if at all, only once a year or every two years.

Even if shippers carry out freight tenders via e-sourcing, e-procurement, online auction tools or other freight platforms, they have to expect a high level of preparation and communication effort. The tendering process is also very complicated for logistics service providers. You must register with various portals and familiarize yourself with the tools. Especially the registration and user administration is very unfavorable for them.

Many services are not very user friendly. It is also noticeable that a large data overload often results without concrete benefits. There are a great many reports and dashboards that show price transparency, but from which it is difficult to derive concrete recommendations for action. Also, a benchmark to the general market is rarely useful for shippers, but he must focus on his own purchasing power on the market as clever use.

In general, many bidding platforms and tenders offer a relatively low cost-benefit ratio.