Carrier tendering

A planned shipment becomes a carrier request when Transportation Planner moves it into Tendered. Tender To Carrier creates a tendering record for the assigned carrier and records an outbound EDI 204 message in the EDI message log. The tender retains shipment, the carrier receiving the tender, tender round, tender date and offered rate. Dispatcher/Ops can therefore follow an unanswered offer without guessing from the shipment’s current carrier field.

Carrier User decides whether the offered movement is acceptable. The response can be pending, accepted, rejected, counteroffered or expired, with response time, counteroffer amount and reject reason providing context. Tender Acceptance Tracking applies the response to the linked shipment and logs the inbound EDI 990 response. The carrier’s decision is the human gate; recording the result is workflow work.

• Check the offer first. Transportation Planner reviews the shipment’s assigned carrier, service level, applied rate contract and cost. Tender To Carrier skips and logs a missing prerequisite when no carrier is assigned. Entering Tendered does not compensate for absent rating evidence.
• Keep attempts distinct. Each tender record stores a round and links the outbound and inbound messages. Retain the original rejected attempt when a planner prepares a subsequent offer. After rejection, Dispatcher/Ops confirms the next carrier offer with Transportation Planner.
• Read the response in context. Acceptance assigns the tendered carrier and advances the shipment to Accepted. Rejection returns it to Planned and only clears assigned carrier when the rejecting carrier is the assigned carrier. Dispatcher/Ops follows counteroffers and expired offers with Transportation Planner. Confirm revised commercial terms before sending another tender.

Decide how your internal team receives a carrier response and how it verifies the responding contact. Agree which freight each carrier contact can access before inviting them. Test a carrier account against its intended tender records and another carrier’s work, then confirm the access arrangement with Logistics Manager. Keep carrier-facing delivery separate from the internal planning workspace where required.

Choose the transport for carrier exchanges and test acknowledgments with the receiving party. The message log retains the exchange type, direction, control number, time and raw payload. Confirm the receiving carrier’s acknowledgment through the chosen EDI or API connection. Keep credentials and transport routing in the governed connection setup.

Use a rated shipment with a known carrier. Transportation Planner tenders it; Dispatcher/Ops checks the created offer and its outbound message link. Carrier User accepts, then the team confirms response time, the inbound message and the shipment’s Accepted state.

Rehearse a rejection with reject reason no capacity. The shipment should return to Planned; a different current carrier must not be cleared merely because an older offer was rejected. Then record a counteroffered response and inspect counteroffer amount. Agree who can authorize the revised commercial terms before sending another offer. Keep that decision with the carrier conversation and the actual tender records.

• Pending Tender Responses — Pending offers with carrier, round, offered rate and tender date for response follow-up.
• Tender Queue — The shipment’s current planning state and applied carrier agreement.

Rehearse rating to carrier response, then follow the accepted movement.