We must not forget about the risk component! Not all freight is equal, for example even though granite countertops are dense, they still have high cargo liability cost.  Carriers will have concerns over whether the shipper is moving freight that presents excess claims risk, and this directly correlates to how well the freight is packaged along with the overall shippers’ claim ratio. 

Carriers need to balance the physical demands of the driver and those expectations all ahead of time for accurate pricing, as worker’s compensation is also a serious concern.  For example, if there is a heavy snow fall, and that driver needs to tarp that flatbed the premium may be higher than a sunny spring day, if it is not included on the bid launch.

Another important consideration for shippers to remember, is what to do when the RFP results arrive back? Different discount ratios are not very helpful when the bases are all over the place. It is important to partner with a logistics solutions provider who have a rating engine to run simulations for you to keep the pricing comparisons all-in & who can swap in/out carrier contracts based off your actual historical spend.

Shippers may have clients that require unique accessorials such as excess length, hazmat or lift gate services.  It is important to have logistics experts at TLI extract this data to uniquely tailor the contracts to the accessorials that are regularly used. 

The golden rule that carriers live by, is “if I have to guess, I have to hedge.” The pricing for shippers is tedious and poorly managed when measured manually on a shipment-by-shipment basis. This is a sophisticated data-driven market now and to get the ideal pricing it is time to customize it to your supply chain profile. It is important to delegate the RFP to a managed transportation provider like Translogistics that know the shippers best interest, and know what carriers need to price competitively. An expert like TLI also keeps their eye on the market.  Seasonality, along with carrier capacity lead to massive volatility within the logistics industry, knowing when to launch the bid is just as important as knowing what to include within it.