The Ultimate Guide to Transport Tendering (2024)

Transport tendering, also known as freight or logistics tendering, is the process by which companies solicit bids from transportation service providers to fulfil their shipping and delivery needs. ‍

This practice is particularly prevalent in industries that rely heavily on moving goods, such as manufacturing, retail, and distribution. During transport tendering, companies outline their requirements, including shipment volume, frequency, delivery locations, and any special considerations.

Transportation providers then submit their proposals, detailing their capabilities, pricing, and other relevant terms. This competitive bidding process allows companies to evaluate multiple offers and select the most suitable transportation partner based on factors like cost-effectiveness, reliability, service quality, and adherence to delivery timelines.

Transport tendering plays a pivotal role in optimizing supply chain operations and achieving cost savings while maintaining efficient and reliable transportation services. In this article we will cover:

• What is transport tendering?
• 3 advantages of transport tendering
• How to plan a transport tender
• Transport tendering solution

What is transport tendering?

Organizations may undergo sourcing or procurement transformation for various reasons, including cost reduction, improved efficiency, transparency, and overall performance enhancement. With supply chains impacted by the pandemic, the climate crisis and the war in Ukraine, procurement transformation is now essential for companies to survive and succeed.

To implement it successfully, organisations need to assess their current processes, identify areas for improvement, and make necessary changes.

This may involve analysing procurement activities, addressing inefficiencies, adopting new technologies, training staff, and aligning the procurement team with company goals.

Effective sourcing transformation requires a clear vision, a well-planned strategy, and the support of all stakeholders. By improving procurement processes, organisations can create value and enhance performance.

3 advantages of transport tendering

1. Cost Efficiency: Transport tendering allows companies to receive competitive bids from multiple transportation service providers, promoting price transparency and enabling them to negotiate favourable rates. This leads to potential cost savings in transportation expenses.

2. Optimized Service: Through the tendering process, companies can assess various service offerings and select transportation partners that align with their specific requirements. This ensures that the chosen providers are well-suited to deliver the level of service needed.
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3. Access to Expertise: Companies can tap into the expertise and capabilities of specialized transportation providers that have the necessary resources, equipment, and experience to handle specific types of shipments or routes.

How to plan a transport tender: a 5-step guide

1. Understand your business and operational routes: Start with a detailed analysis of your transportation sourcing needs, including the types of goods, packaging, loading requirements, and any special handling.
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2. Select the right carriers for the tender: Evaluate your current carriers and consider potential new providers. Keep updated with market trends and carrier capabilities to ensure you invite the best candidates.
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3. Establish your carrier allocation strategy: Develop a clear strategy for allocating carriers, taking into account major transport routes, customer requirements, and your capacity to manage multiple carriers.
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4. ‍Create a clear and comprehensive tender document: Your RFP should clearly articulate your transport needs, including shipment profiles, nature of goods, and regularity of shipments. Make it structured and straightforward.
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5. Record and realize Your tender results: After completing the tender process, finalize carrier selections and contract negotiations. Implement the tender results efficiently to establish successful partnerships.‍

Bonus step! Leverage Keelvar for enhanced tender management: After following these steps for a successful transport tender, integrating a tool like Keelvar can significantly refine and enhance your process. Keelvar specializes in sourcing optimization, offering sophisticated solutions that can streamline the tendering process from start to finish.

By leveraging our advanced analytics and intelligent automation features, businesses can gain deeper insights into their transport needs, manage complex carrier relationships more effectively, and implement tender results with greater precision and efficiency. Keelvar stands as a valuable asset in ensuring that your transport tendering is as effective, strategic, and data-driven as possible.

Transport tendering solution

As the logistics industry evolves, Keelvar stands at the forefront of facilitating significant improvements in transport tendering and logistics procurement. Our innovative platform offers a multitude of benefits and features, uniquely positioning us as a leader in the field:

Optimizing carrier decisions across all transportation modes:

Keelvar enhances logistics procurement outcomes across various transportation categories, including ground (trucking and rail), ocean freight, air freight, intermodal, parcel, truck rentals, and warehousing and fulfillment. Our solution's capacity to optimize carrier decisions, considering a myriad of factors, is invaluable in today's complex logistics landscape.

‍Automated and scalable solutions:

‍Keelvar's platform's automation capabilities, particularly for spot buys, enable efficient sourcing directly from suppliers, revolutionizing the way businesses handle their procurement needs. Keelvar's scalability is evident in our ability to manage events involving hundreds of lanes, thousands of carriers, and millions of bid data points, ensuring comprehensive coverage for businesses of all sizes.

Enhancing efficiency and decision quality:

‍Our solutions boost operational agility, allowing quick execution of a range of transportation events, complemented by intuitive reporting for maximum efficiency. Keelvar's platform also aids in reducing supply chain risk through detailed price and non-price bid analysis, fostering better decision-making.

Integrating complex logistics factors:

‍Keelvar enables logistics procurement buyers to make optimal decisions considering various complex factors such as capacity requirements, rate fluctuations, and service reliability. This aspect is crucial in a market where logistics needs are increasingly multifaceted and dynamic.

Success stories and endorsements:

Notable companies like Carlsberg, CJLA, and Schneider Electric have leveraged Keelvar for their logistics procurement, achieving more efficient road transportation events, enabling frequent and larger sourcing events, and utilizing AI for large-scale, complex sourcing.

“We now have standard elements that can be followed for road transportation events, making it much more efficient for the team, and for leadership.” - Koteswara Rao Malipeddi, Group Senior Category Manager for Logistics, Carlsberg

Ready to transform your transport tendering?

Keelvar's unique blend of sourcing optimization and autonomous sourcing is ready to drive better outcomes for your business. For more information or to request a demo, contact us today​​.

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