With 50 years experience in the freight forwarding industry, we know the ins and outs of the business to ensure that you have the best advice available so that you can choose the best freight partner for you (not just the one with the lowest price).
Our industry leading software ensures that you know exactly which carriers would best suit your freight mix. Whether it's Seafreight, Airfreight or Courier we can analyse all routes and costs to provide you with the data that you need.
From large importers to small exporters, we have completed hundreds of tenders over the last 8 years achieving an average of 21% first year savings. This is the case even though most of our customers remain with their existing carrier.
To give forwarders a true indication of what they are being asked to quote on, you should provide a reasonable snap shot of your shipment history. Depending on the number of transactions this could range from 1 to 12 months. This is the key piece of data that is required to get the best result.
In our initial meeting we'll work with you to identify your specific needs. It’s best to minimise the number of these to reduce additional costs. It also ensures the participating forwarder can provide a more accurate cost with lower risk thereby reducing margins that you will pay. Sometimes this is not possible but it’s best not to add complexity if not necessary. Some needs may include:
· Dangerous goods
· Fragile requiring special handling
· Specific pickup/delivery times
To ensure that your tender is run successfully we'll help you identify just what you want out of the tender. This can affect the forwarders that you invite as some are more expensive but that may be required to ensure success. Some of the common reasons are:
· It is a bench marking exercise to ensure that the existing forwarder is competitive.
· You want to reduce cost but not compromise on service standards.
· You are unhappy with existing arrangements and want to change forwarders to improve service.
· It is time for a change of image.
· You want a national forwarder that can handle all of your cartage requirements.
· You are prepared to use different forwarders dependent on route or service required.
The forwarders that you invite must be capable of meeting your specific needs and may be a limiting factor in your choice of forwarders. We have extensive knowledge of the freight industry and can offer our independent recommendations that would best suit you.
· Usually 4 – 6 well-chosen forwarders should give you the required result.
· With International Freight, all forwarders use the same Airlines or shipping companies. The difference is the service offered by individual forwarders at Origin & Destination. Such things as do they have quality representation in your key origin & Destinations will play a vital part in your choice of forwarders.
We'll create a zip file containing Transaction History, your trade lanes and your specific needs and email the tender package with a covering letter to your previously chosen list of forwarders inviting them to respond to your tender.
· We allow 4 weeks for the forwarders to respond.
· A specific date / time that responses must be received by will be included.
Now is the number crunching stage. We have specialised software that combines all shipment history, shipment lanes, current rates and new rates to produce a like for like comparison. You can’t skip through this step too quickly just because the analysis may become difficult and tedious. This is where the money is saved.
The end objective is to be able to say:
· The historic freight cost of your “Transaction History” was $x.
· Based on the quotations provided by each the competing forwarders, your “Transaction History” would have cost $y with these rates.
There may be no guarantee that you will move the exact amount of freight or the new rates will not change before the end of the period so the end objective is a comparison between forwarders rather than a cost projection.
Comparing the transaction history cost for each forwarder may show some glaring pricing anomalies or be spotted as higher than the norm by our experienced staff. This may be due to error, one of your previously stated specific needs or the forwarder may have misread the market.
We will reach and discuss this with the forwarder concerned to verify rates quoted.
Combining any amendments to the submissions to the initial analysis provides us with the final analysis that we will present to you.
We now set up a second meeting with you to present our cost analysis and discuss the total tender packages that each forwarder has offered. While cost is important so are:
· Service standards
· Branch network
· IT solutions
· Transit times
· Use of subcontractors/Agents
· Did they comply with the terms of the tender
· References
· Previous experience with each forwarder
At this stage, we give independent recommendations but the experiences and decisions are left to the shipper to ensure impartiality on our part.
It is now time to prepare a shortlist of forwarders to interview and allow them to present their business case.
· Select your preferred shortlist, usually 2 or 3 forwarders to make a formal presentation.
· The forwarder will be presenting their best features.
· Be prepared to ask questions.
· How will they handle your special requirements – Do their staff get training?
· Will they provide training for your staff to get the best out their IT solutions?
· Payment terms may be important to you.
· Claims procedures.
· If there is going to be a change of forwarders, how will they manage the changeover.
We recommend making a list of the criteria that are important to you and to allocate weighted points and score for each forwarder. Some criteria may be:
· How did the forwarder come across during the presentation?
· Did they instill confidence in their ability to handle your freight?
Once you are happy with your cost analysis and presentation criteria it’s time to make the decision and then work with the successful forwarder to implement the changeover plan, if necessary.
In our experience this process takes between 8 to 10 weeks and about 50% of tenders retain the current forwarder with a substantial cost reduction.
*Sample of recent tender results
$1,040,000
$3,340,169
$550,000
$1,004,785
$216,216
$138,356
$691,630
$395,507
$83,572
$118,873
$11,158
$77,959
$765,723
$2,663,208
$168,491
$103,467
$241,516
$1,703,666
$735,415
$78,406
$58,935
$120,862
$575,147
$189,052
$3,809,966
$195,000
$660,160
$66,000
$214,421
$80,000
$65,719
$203,685
$118,296
$24,236
$65,380
$1,359
$22,608
$63,555
$266,300
$39,090
$24,832
$86,511
$613,000
$72,659
$16,356
$16,431
$40,173
$63,615
$58,689
$230,870
19%
20%
12%
21%
37%
48%
30%
30%
29%
55%
12%
29%
8%
10%
23%
24%
36%
36%
10%
21%
28%
33%
11%
31%
6%
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Email: david(at)nzfreighttenders.co.nz
Phone: 09 624 0779
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