RFP Automation can be found under the Manage Company screen on the left panel under Lane Management.
Adding a new RFP
After clicking on RFP Automation you will see a screen where you can click to add a new RFP.
Before starting to add a new RFP and especially if this is your first time using RFP Automation, we recommend downloading the RFP Automation template via this link. This template includes sample data and detailed instructions on the proper data formats.
When opening the template you will see these default columns to let you define the lanes in your new RFP. In addition, since the RFP files sent back from your carriers will create contracts automatically, you can also include references to Fuel Surcharge Tables and Accessorial Tables. While these references will be part of the contract upload, they will not be visible or editable by your carriers.
Default RFP Automation Import File
Column Name | Required? | Sample Data | Notes |
Lane ID | Yes | Austin to San Francisco Q42025 | ID must be unique. Use the same Lane ID for multiple rows if creating rate table bands. Routing Guides created via the RFP process will use the Lane ID as the Routing Guide Name. |
Notes | No | Test notes for contract | Optional field that describes the lane |
Equipment Type | Yes | Dry Van | For multiple equipment types, separate by commas (e.g., Dry Van, Reefer, Flatbed). Use values from the list of equipment types to the right. |
Shipment Modes | Yes | FTL | For multiple modes, separate by commas (e.g., FTL, LTL, DRAYAGE) |
Origin Address | No | 7901 Industrial Blvd. |
|
Origin City | No | Austin |
|
Origin State / Province | No | TX | To enter multiple states, separate values by semicolon (e.g., TX;OK;NM) |
Origin Postal Code | No | 78701 | 3 digit postal codes are supported. To enter multiple postal codes, separate values by semicolon (e.g., 787;786;785) |
Origin Country | Yes | US |
|
Destination Address | No | 7901 Industrial Blvd. |
|
Destination City | No | San Francisco |
|
Destination State / Province | No | CA | To enter multiple states, separate values by semicolon (e.g., TX;OK;NM) |
Destination Postal Code | No | 94106 | 3 digit postal codes are supported. To enter multiple postal codes, separate values by semicolon (e.g., 787;786;785) |
Destination Country | Yes | US |
|
Round Trip | No | Y | Indicates if the lane is a round trip, where the shipment's first and last stop match the origin location. Valid values are Y, N or leave blank. N and blank are the same value. |
Fuel Surcharge Reference | No | Q42025FUELTABLE | Valid “Reference” value from an existing fuel surcharge table. Values must match exactly and are case sensitive. |
Accessorial Table Reference | No | Northeast Accessorials | Valid "Reference" value from an existing accessorial table. Values must match exactly and are case sensitive. |
Rate Currency | No | USD | Options: USD, CAD, MXN, EUR, CNY. Default is USD if left blank. The value set in the first row of the import file will be applied to the entire contract. |
Distance | No | 150 |
|
Distance Unit | Yes | MILE | Options: MILE, KM |
Rate Type | No | RATE_TABLE | Options: FLAT_RATE, PER_MILE, PER_HOUR, or RATE_TABLE |
Volume | No | 20 | The number of expected loads for the lane. This can be described in the carrier instructions if this is per week, per month, etc |
Adding a new RFP
Click on Add New RFP
On the modal window, enter a name for the RFP and the date range. The date range entered will be applied to the contracts and routing guides when awarding the freight to the carriers on this RFP. Then click Next.
Drag and drop your lane CSV file onto the Importer. Then click Next.
After selecting the file and clicking Next, you will see a status messaging confirming that the file is being imported:
Once the file is imported, you will see the validation page to ensure the correct data is mapped to each column:
After reviewing and making any necessary changes to the validation page click Validate on the lower right of the screen.
Once the RFP import file is complete with validation you will be on the RFP page and your most recent RFP will be at the top of the page.
Send RFP Bid Request
To select carriers to participate in the RFP, click on Select Carriers for RFP Bid Request:
You can add carries using the Tag feature:
You can also search on carriers by typing in their name in the CARRIER(S)* field.
When searching for carriers you will also see their overall performance shown next to each carrier name.
This includes:
On Time Delivery % for all lanes
Tender Acceptance % for all lanes
Track Score % for all lanes
Please Note:
Inactive carriers will be shown in grey and cannot be included in the RFP
If there is no historical data for the carriers On Time Delivery, Tender Acceptance or Tracking Score a value of “--” will be shown.
You can an also add instructions to the carriers and attach a file that will be sent to the carrier along with the invitation to bid. It is recommended to attach a document that will provide detailed instructions on what type of rate information you are requesting from the carrier.
When you have selected all of the carriers, click Send
RFP Status
After you have requested bid from carriers you will be returned to the RFPs page and you will see the current status of that RFP:
Which includes:
The name of the RFP you entered as well as the dates of the RFP which will be applied to the routing guides once bidding is complete and you have reviewed and accepted the bids. You can also see the number of lanes that you upload initially when creating the RFP.
Bid Time Remaining shows the amount of time remaining before the bidding window closes.
Bid Status shows where the current status of the RFP. Once the bidding window has closed the Bidding Complete will have a blue check mark.
Lane Summary View
Once the bidding window is complete, click on Review Bids to see a lane summary and detail view:
This will bring you to a lane summary view of the RFP. Using the Filter option, you can filter the lanes to be displayed as well as the columns to display and the order in which they appear in the table.
These columns represent what was uploaded to define the lane when the RFP was created:
Lane ID
Origin
Destination
Equipment Types
Modes
Round Trip
Volume
These columns are provided to help provide additional insights on the lane:
Bids - Is the number of bids you have received back on that lane.
Highest Bid - Is the highest bid you have received back on the lane.
Lowest Bid - Is the lowest bid you have received back on the lane.
Avg Spend - Is the average spend on that lane over the last 12 months. Note this will not show a value if you don’t have prior shipments on this lane.
Tender Rejection - this is your overall tender rejection rate for this lane over the past 12 months. Lanes with a high tender rejection rate may indicate that carriers find this lane less desirable and more likely to reject the tender depending on other offers they may receive.
Lane Detail View
Clicking on a row in the Lane Summary view, will show the details for that lane including a row for each carrier that submitted a bid for that lane.
While the carriers are ranked from lowest to highest bid price by default, you can move a carrier up or down in rank depending on your preferences on price and the carrier’s past performance on this lane.
The columns in the lane detail are:
Current Bid - is the most recent bid on this lane for this lane and RFP.
Previous Bid - this is the last bid for this lane if the carrier has submitted more than one bid for this current RFP.
Lane Runs - this is the volume of shipments the carrier has delivered in the last 12 months.
On Time % - The percentage of on time deliveries on previous shipments in the last 12 months.
Acceptance % - The tender acceptance percentage for this carrier and lane.
Tracking % - The percentage of shipments where the carrier sent tracking updates.
Note: if there is no prior history for this carrier and lane “--” will be displayed.
Request Re-bids
Once carriers have uploaded their RFP bids and submitted these back to the shipper, the carrier bids are displayed in the Lane Bids screen. If the Shipper would like to request a carrier to re-bid on certain lanes they can toggle the Re-Bid button for the carrier. The user can go through the RFP lane by lane and mark carriers for Re-bids. The selected carriers are automatically saved, allowing the user to leave the RFP screens and return at a later time to mark additional carriers for Re-bidding.
Once the shipper has evaluated all the lanes and carrier bids, they can choose the RFP Actions drop list and select Send Re-Bid Notifications to Carriers.
This process will bring up a modal screen with all the carriers listed within the RFP marked for a Re-bid. The user can deselect any carrier but can only add carriers with a lane marked for a re-bid. They can then set an expiration date and time when all of the re-bids must be returned by the carriers. Once entered, the user can hit Send to send the notifications to the carriers.
The carriers will receive the following email notification that a Re-bid on lanes is requested by the shipper, and when the re-bidding time will expire.
The carrier will see on their RFP dashboard that Re-bids are requested for the RFP and when the re-bidding process will expire.
When the carrier goes into the RFP details screen they will see which lanes have been requested to Re-bid with a red Needs Re-bid indicator in the status column. At this point the carrier can update their bid in the Rate column. These updates are automatically saved as they are entered by the carrier. Once they have completed the re-bidding process they can click Submit in order to transmit the updated rates to the shipper.
On the Shippers RFP display, they will see current carrier bid as well as the carrier’s previous bid amount. If the shipper would like to get additional re-bids they can toggle the Re-bids button and repeat the process. This allows the shipper to have as many bidding rounds as desired.
Awarding RFP: Creating Contracts & Routing Guides
Once you are ready to award the carriers based on their rank for each lane, you can select which lanes to choose by clicking the checkbox next to the lane. If individual lanes are selected, clicking the RFP Actions button at the top right of the lane summary view will have an option to create Routing Guides for All Lanes or Selected Lanes. If no lanes are selected, only the option to create Routing Guides for All Lanes will be available.
Once you choose an option, the Create Routing Guides modal will appear. Here you can set the amount of time for the carrier to respond to a tender request before the tender expires and move on to the next carrier.
In addition, you can limit the number of carriers in the routing guide. For example, if you received bids from 15 carriers, you can choose to limit the routing guide to only the top 4 carriers. All 15 carriers will have their contracts loaded in the system and will be available for manual carrier assignment even if they are not part of the routing guide.
You can also select if you want the Routing Guide to execute automatically when ever a shipment is created that meets the lane, equipment type and mode criteria. After making your selections, clicking Create Routing Guides will create the corresponding Routing Guides.
Managing and Editing Routing Guides
After clicking on Create Routing Guides, there will be a routing guide link for each lane on the lane summary page. Clicking on that link will bring you to a Routing Guide details modal where you can view the information contained in the routing guide. Clicking on the Manage Routing Guide button will take you in to the Routing Guide, where you are able to make manual updates to the Routing Guide.
RFP Inactivate Carriers on Lanes
Once carriers have uploaded their bids, the shipper has the ability to stack rank the carriers on each lane. The default sort order is lowest to highest cost, but using the :: icon on the left side of each row, you can click and drag the row and arrange these in order of carrier preference. The order in which the carriers are ranked will determine the tendering order if routing guides are created for the lane.
The Inactivate feature allows you to mark carriers on the lane inactive in contracts. This is useful if for example you receive 10 carrier bids on a given lane. By default, all 10 carriers would appear in the tender modal when assigning a carrier to a shipment. If I really only want to see the top 4 carriers appear when applying a contract to a shipment I can check the Inactive box for carriers ranked 5 - 10 on the screen. In order to make it easier for the user, when the 5th ranked carrier box is selected the system will automatically check the carriers ranked 6 - 10 as well. If the user made a mistake they can check the box on the header row to deselect all the checked boxes and start again. The user can also check and uncheck individual carriers.
The Inactive carrier checks are automatically saved as the user enters them, so the user can begin this process and then return to it in the future.
Once all the lanes have been reviewed and lanes have been marked Inactive for some carriers, the user can click on the RFP Actions drop list and select Set Contract Rate Statuses. This will initiate the process to update all of the related carrier contracts that were created when the carrier submitted the RFP bids.
The shipper can access the carrier’s contract and click on the View Rate Table link to see the detailed rate information lane by lane. The Inactive column will display a check box next to any lanes that were marked Inactive in the RFP. The user also has the ability to manually check or uncheck any carrier lane within the contract independent of the RFP process. This allows the shipper to streamline the number of potential carriers that show up during the carrier tendering process, while still retaining all the rate information submitted by the carrier in the RFP.
