By Luis Lopez, AI transportation consultant, CEO of Go Hub.io Holdings Corp and subsidiaries, and host of the Freight Guru Podcast
A freight RFP, sometimes called a bid or a procurement event, is how a shipper sets contract rates for the coming year. Done well, it produces a routing guide carriers honor and a budget finance can rely on. Done badly, it produces a spreadsheet of low numbers that fall apart the first time the market tightens.
The difference is rarely the software. It is the preparation before the bid goes out and the discipline after it is awarded. This guide walks through the process in order.
Step 1: Decide what you are trying to fix
Before building a bid, write down the goal. Lower cost is the usual answer, but it is seldom the only one. Common objectives include:
- Reducing the share of freight that ends up on the spot market.
- Improving on-time pickup and delivery on specific lanes.
- Consolidating a carrier base that has grown too large to manage.
- Adding capacity in a region where tenders keep getting rejected.
The goal determines who you invite and how you score the responses. A bid scored on price alone will be won by price alone.
Step 2: Clean your lane data
Carriers price what you show them. If the data is vague, they add a cushion for the unknown or bid low and reject the freight later. At a minimum, each lane should show:
- Origin and destination by city and ZIP code, not just state.
- Annual volume and how it is spread through the year, including peaks.
- Equipment type and any special requirements.
- Typical weight, pallet count and commodity.
- Live load or drop trailer, and appointment rules at each end.
- Average loading and unloading time at each facility.
Use twelve months of actual shipment history rather than a forecast someone hopes for. If volume on a lane is uncertain, say so. Carriers remember shippers who promised fifty loads a month and tendered five.
Step 3: Group lanes sensibly
Hundreds of one-load-a-year lanes are impossible to price well. Roll low-volume lanes into regional or mileage-band pricing, and put your real volume into named point-to-point lanes. Carriers build networks around consistent freight. Give them something they can plan a truck around.
Step 4: Choose who to invite
More bidders is not always better. A long list produces a lot of low-effort responses and a heavy analysis burden. A sound invitation list includes:
- Incumbents who are performing well.
- Asset-based carriers with a real presence in your origin markets.
- A limited number of brokers for surge and backup coverage.
- Regional specialists for lanes national carriers do not want.
Vet new participants before the bid, not after the award. The five questions to ask before hiring a freight carrier are a reasonable screen.
Step 5: Write clear bid instructions
State the rules so every bidder prices the same thing:
- Rate basis. Linehaul per mile or flat per load, with fuel handled separately under a published schedule.
- Accessorials. Your standard schedule for detention, stop-offs, layover and other charges, including free time.
- Payment terms. Days to pay and how invoices are submitted.
- Term and volume language. The contract period, and whether volumes are estimates or commitments.
- Timeline. Question deadline, bid due date, number of rounds and the award date.
Hold one question-and-answer period and share all answers with every bidder. It is fairer and it improves the quality of the pricing.
Step 6: Score on more than price
When the bids return, the lowest number on each lane is a starting point, not an answer. Weigh it against:
- Historical tender acceptance and on-time performance, for incumbents.
- Whether the carrier has real capacity at the origin or is guessing.
- How far the bid sits below the rest of the field. An outlier usually means a mistake or a rate that will not survive.
- How much of your network would depend on a single provider.
A rate nobody honors is more expensive than a higher rate that is accepted every time, because the rejected load goes to the spot market at whatever it costs that day. The trade-off is explained in contract vs. spot freight rates.
Step 7: Negotiate with feedback, not pressure
A second round works best when carriers receive useful information: where they rank on a lane, which lanes they are close on, and which package of lanes you would award together. Carriers will often sharpen a rate in exchange for a balanced set of lanes that keeps their trucks loaded in both directions. Repeated rounds that only demand a lower number teach carriers to pad their first bid next year.
Step 8: Award a routing guide, not a single winner
For each lane, name a primary carrier and at least one or two backups in order, with their rates. On high-volume lanes, consider splitting the award so no single carrier’s bad week stops your shipping. Tell every participant the outcome, including those who did not win. They are your backup capacity and next year’s bidders.
Step 9: Implement and enforce
The award is only real once it is loaded into the TMS and the people tendering freight follow it. After go-live:
- Tender in routing guide order, every time.
- Track tender acceptance by carrier and lane each week.
- Hold quarterly reviews with primary carriers using shared scorecards.
- Address problems at your own docks. Long waits are a common reason awarded carriers start rejecting freight, as covered in truck detention time.
Common mistakes
- Bidding too often. Rebidding the network every time the market softens tells carriers the contract means nothing, and they return the favor when the market turns.
- Awarding on price and expecting service. You get what you scored.
- Hiding the hard parts. Undisclosed appointment restrictions, driver-assist unloading or long dwell times show up as rejections and accessorial disputes.
- Ignoring the cycle. Rates signed at the bottom of a soft market are the first to be abandoned when capacity tightens. See the freight market cycle explained.
- Not delivering the volume. Awarded freight that never materializes damages your credibility in the next bid.
Bottom line
A freight RFP is a commitment in both directions. The shipper commits to accurate information, consistent freight and fair treatment at the dock. The carrier commits to capacity at an agreed price. Shippers who treat the bid as the start of that relationship, and not as a one-day price contest, end up with routing guides that hold when it matters.
For more on freight procurement and carrier relationships, subscribe to the Freight Guru Podcast.
About the author: Luis Lopez is a Miami-based AI transportation consultant and logistics entrepreneur, the CEO of Go Hub.io Holdings Corp and subsidiaries, and host of the Freight Guru Podcast.