How do freight brokers respond to shipper RFPs?

Through the shipper's procurement platform, by pricing a defined set of lanes over a defined period. Most events include a questionnaire or required documents before bidding opens, a specified rate type, and often multiple rounds where the shipper narrows the field or asks for improved pricing.

Do brokers pay to bid on shipper RFPs?

It depends on the platform. Some charge carriers and brokers to participate. On GoodShip, carriers and brokers bid at no cost, and onboarding and support are handled as part of the shipper's implementation.

What lane information should brokers get before pricing a bid?

Volume and seasonality, lead time, pickup and drop-off patterns, equipment requirements, and accessorial expectations. Without that detail you either price in a risk premium or take a risk you did not price, and both outcomes are bad.

What happens if a broker wins a lane and then rejects tenders?

The shipper sees it. Accepted loads are tracked against committed volume alongside service metrics, and that record carries into the next bid. Winning on a rate you cannot cover is usually more expensive than not winning the lane.

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October 30, 2026

How Freight Brokers Respond to Shipper Tenders and RFPs

Sergei Egorov

Director of Growth Marketing at GoodShip

Freight brokers respond to shipper RFPs by pricing a defined set of lanes over a defined period, usually through the shipper's procurement platform, and then living with those rates for the contract term. Responding well means pricing from your own cost history rather than from the rate you hope to buy at, and submitting before the deadline without rushing the last third of the file.

What a shipper RFP actually asks for

A bid event is a request for pricing on a set of lanes over a set period. It can be a full-network RFP or a targeted mini-bid covering a slice of the shipper's network.

Most events include some combination of a required questionnaire before you can bid, documents you need to review or acknowledge, a defined rate type such as total linehaul or linehaul rate per mile, and sometimes guardrails setting minimum or maximum rates per mile to keep bids in range.

Many events run in multiple rounds, where the shipper narrows the carrier set or asks for improved pricing on specific lanes.

How to price a bid file

Start with your real cost to serve on that lane

The most expensive mistake in RFP pricing is building from a network average instead of from what capacity actually costs you on that specific lane. A lane where your average carrier cost has been running above what the shipper currently pays is a lane you should not win at the current rate.

Use the lane detail the shipper provides

Good bid packages include lane-level context that materially changes your price. In GoodShip's carrier portal, you can see lane-specific details including lead time, seasonality, and average pickup and drop-off days drawn from the shipper's historical network data, and view lane analytics including a map view, historical transit time, and shipping patterns.

Short lead times, concentrated pickup days, and strong seasonality all change what the lane costs you to cover. Pricing without that detail means pricing in a risk premium or taking a risk you did not price.

Decide where you actually want to win

Not every lane in the file deserves your sharpest number. Lanes that fit your network density and give you a backhaul are worth competing for. Lanes that would leave equipment stranded are worth a disciplined price or no bid at all.

Price the whole file, not just the top of it

Under deadline pressure the last third of a bid file gets priced faster and worse than the first third. That is where the losing lanes come from.

GoodShip's RFP Engine for pricing shipper bids

Submitting

Most platforms let you bid in the interface or export the lane list, price it offline, and import it back. GoodShip supports entering bids directly in the UI or exporting lanes to Excel and importing bids from CSV.

Some events show feedback between rounds, including color-coded guidance on how your bid compares to a target or rank, with the shipper controlling timing and visibility. If you get that feedback, it tells you where you are competitive before the final round rather than after the award.

Watch for required steps before bidding opens, including questionnaires and documents. Events can gate bidding on completing them.

After the award

You receive an award notification and can review and accept or reject awarded lanes. Accepting means committing to volume at that rate for the term.

That commitment is measured. Shippers track accepted loads against the volume you agreed to, alongside on-time pickup and delivery and tender acceptance, and that record follows you into the next bid. A broker who bids low and then rejects tenders is visible in the data long before the next RFP.

What it costs to participate

On GoodShip, carriers and brokers participate at no cost. GoodShip manages onboarding and support as part of the shipper's implementation, so there is no separate enablement effort or fee to bid.

Frequently asked questions