Crafting RFPs carriers want to bid on

This fireside chat recap is from FreightWaves’ Domestic Supply Chain Summit on Wednesday. 

FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: Crafting RFPs that carriers want to bid on.

DETAILS: RFPs have become a hot topic among shippers, more so now with loosening market conditions. David Stone, senior director of customer logistics at Ryder, shares the best tips for shippers in regard to managing and conducting effective RFPs.

KEY QUOTES FROM DAVID STONE:

“RFP season kicks into high gear come Q1 of next year. Well, in order to even participate in that, you’re seeing a lot of shippers today say, ‘Prove it, prove what you call and claim to do.’ One of the things that definitely is a change, we now have to participate in the spot market and our participation is not just a simple couple bids. It is a full-on strategy to try to win lanes and try to win bids inside of a spot market before a shipper will even let us touch their RFP.”

“In regards to a strong RFP, data wins in every sense of the word and I think that the [RFPs] that carriers get frustrated on are the ones where the forecasting is incorrect or the data set isn’t complete or there’s a ton of questions related to what the data set is? You get into the bid package and you have some questions and the more questions you ask, all of a sudden more information starts to come out and all of a sudden, it’s not necessarily what you thought it was.”

“I think you’re seeing a lot of shippers where they have hundreds of carriers and brokers calling them every single day for their freight. They can kind of do what they want to do in this environment. I think there’s still a lot of reservation in terms of what’s going to happen next year, we’re all guessing in terms of what’s going to happen. But at the end of the day, if they have an opportunity to potentially lower their cost, they’re going to take it. I do think the kind of 18- to 24-month-long RFPs, I think a lot of those are going by the wayside.”

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Editor: Mary O'Connell