13.05.2016
Part 1 - Freight tender RFQ Preparations
Are you about to plan a freight tender RFQ, or perhaps you have already started your work preparing for a freight tender, but soon realized it was way more complex and time consuming that you could imagine? Well, you're not alone feeling like this.
Working with large organizations and providing them our freight e-sourcing platform, we are transforming the way companies manage their freight tender RFP / RFQ's. We would like to share our experiences, so you can avoid some pitfalls and make the RFQ process easier.
In this blog, we will go through RFQ preparations. In upcoming posts we will go talk about other steps in the process; like "RFQ setup", "Bid collection and analysis" plus "Awarding and implementation".
First, let's define a freight RFQ
There are a few freight RFQ synonyms being used, such as "transport tender", "Request for Quotation" (RFQ), "Request for proposal" (RFP) etc. The purpose of a freight RFQ is to go out to the market and get the best available service at best possible price, at a certain time. A freight RFQ eventually results in new agreements with logistics service providers (LSP's) for a period of 6, 12, 24 or 36 months.
A freight RFQ project is normally an exercise that takes somewhere between 3-6 months to complete but can take longer time if it's more complex data sets involved or if the process is manual (i.e. no tendering platform is being used).
Always be prepared
A lot of the preparation work for a freight RFQ is actually covered in the daily work. You manage already in the current set-up a lot of the variables that will indicate to you when/if a full RFQ is needed. Things like:
When one or many of these indicators are showing a major change you have the opportunity to sharpen the competitive advantage by tendering the business.
Collecting the data
Like with any business decision you need a solid foundation of facts to know where you’re coming from before you can make a proper decision on what to do for the future.
Aligning on the requirements
Each RFQ is an opportunity to sharpen the quality and standards of the service provided by your suppliers. You should always align internally with all your stakeholders on these parameters. Never assume “same procedure as last year”
Next part, setting up the freight tender RFQ.
You can also register for our webinar where we in 30 minutes go through the keys to a successful freight tender RFQ.
For more information, please contact johan@tendereasy.com
Written by
Johan Vagerstam