Automated Freight Bidding Tools Pay Dividends for Shippers, Carriers and 3PLs

Striving For Procurement Optimization

At the start of the New Year, it’s common for freight shippers striving for an optimized supply chain to review their carrier options to make sure they use the ideal mix of freight transportation providers.

In 2019, this procurement business has lasted the entire year, as shippers and 3PLs look to take advantage of a softer freight market to secure better pricing and service.

Brian Thompson, SMC³’s Chief Commercial Officer, has experienced this increase in activity first hand.

Why has there been an increase in freight bidding activity this year?

During the first eight months of 2019, we’ve seen a record number of less-than-truckload bid events in our Bid$ense tool.

We think that’s because shippers and 3PLs see that the time is now to possibly find lower rates.

While savings are important, these buyers are also seeking to expand their provider base to ensure future capacity in advance of the next capacity crunch.

We’ve found that shippers who remove the manual aspects of finding and sourcing freight transportation also receive responses from a wider net of carriers – 30, on average, for a single bid event, which is significantly more carriers than the handful they might query when using manual bidding methods.

I think shippers are also wary that the market could quickly swing the other way toward tighter capacity. They’re looking to quickly lock-in contract rates.

Since so many shippers and 3PLs are in the market, what’s the best way for them to get a good result in a bid? 

Anything shippers can do to make carriers more efficient will help establish a lasting, worthwhile partnership.

Shippers should know which carrier prioritizes what freight type in which lanes and also know that the expectations they set during the bidding process have to match the reality after the new routings are implemented.

While automated bidding tools are crucial for shipper sourcing events, the solution brings benefits to all parties involved.

In my experience, carriers that receive clean, complete shipment history and future volume forecasts from shippers are able to confidently sharpen their pencils to make the most competitive offers, which can lead to shipper savings. In fact, before the advent of bid technology tools, the biggest complaint we heard from carriers concerned the data customers submit.

There was no way for them to accurately respond to a bid when data was missing and incomplete, so they simply planned for the worst. Pricing teams are very analytical and risk-averse, so their price offers reflected that planning. 

When carriers receive more data from shippers, giving them a complete picture of a shipper’s freight, everybody wins.

To learn how SMC³’s Bid$ense can drive value for your organization, peruse the datasheet here, watch a detailed demo here or contact SMC³’s Customer Support team at [email protected] and make sure you download the 2 Bid$ense papers below.

Related Article: Automating Transportation Procurement Leads to Sustained Savings for Carriers, Shippers and 3PLs

Related Papers

Bid$ense: Streamlined Transportation Sourcing
This paper details how using Bid$ense leverages SMC³’s lifetime of transportation purchasing knowledge, allowing customers to incorporate pricing, claims ratios, on-time performance and transit times into their LTL bidding analysis. Download Now!

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Strategic LTL Bidding for Minimum Cost & Maximum Efficiency
This paper details how SMC³ designed Bid$ense for complete procurement transparency, and how you’ll move ahead with ease and confidence toward best-choice carrier qualification and truly strategic LTL procurement. Download Now!

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