Shippers can use the tendering features of Sterling TMS to automateand control the carrier selection process:

Tendering Strategies

Foreach transportation mode you define these Tendering Strategies:

• Do you use Sterling TMS oranother system to do your tendering?
• How long before a shipment departs does it need to be tendered?
• How long do you allow carriers to respond to the tenders?
• Can your users override the shipment rate that is stored in yourcarrier contracts?

Route Guides

Use the Route Guides in SterlingTMS to define the tendering process you want to use for each shippingregion:

• What transportation modes equipment and service type do youuse in each shipping lane?
• What tendering method do you want to use such as sequential orbroadcast tenders?
• Do you want to use automatic carrier selection?
• Do you want this shipping region to use different tender timefence settings than your default Tendering Strategies?
• Do you want to disqualify carriers from taking a load if theyhave inadequate transit time?

Tendering Methods

SterlingTMS supports a variety of tendering methods that you can use to efficientlycontrol carrier selection and make sure all your freight is covered:

• Sequential: Tender to carriers one at atime using the sequence defined in the Route Guide.
• Broadcast: Tender to a list of carriersat the same time.
• Broadcast for Capacity: Tender to a listof carriers at the same time. The carrier can accept the shipper'soffer or submit a different bid.
• Broadcast for Review: Tender to a listof carriers at the same time. After carriers respond the shipperselects the carrier to take the load.
• Manual: Tender to a single carrier.

Automatic Carrier Selection

You can have Sterling TMS automaticallytender your shipments based on your Route Guide rules.

Forexample you might have Sterling TMS automaticallyperform a sequential tender to the eligible carriers starting withthe carrier that has the lowest rate.

Volume Tendering

You can set up tendering strategiesbased on the volume commitments you establish with your carriers.You can then use Sterling TMS totender shipments to the carriers that are the furthest from reachingtheir volume commitments.

For example you might want a carrierto receive at least 10 loads per week between Ohio and Minnesota.

Sorting Carriers

Youcan control how Sterling TMS sortscarriers for manual and sequential tenders:

• Rate: The carrier with the lowest rateis listed first.
• Commit Quantity: The carrier with the highestnumber of committed loads is listed first.
• Rank: Carriers are sorted based on theranking the shipper assigned.
• Factored Cost: The carrier with the lowestfactored cost is listed first. You can use factored costs to assigndiscounts to carriers based on good service and penalties to carriersbased on poor service.

Tender Overrides

SterlingTMS automatically generates a carrier selection plan for each shipmentbased on the contracts and Route Guide rules the shipper administratordefines. For individual shipments Execution users can override thesedefault tendering rules.

For example a dispatcher might determinethat none of the contracted carriers are available to make the deliveryin time. The dispatcher can perform a tender override and select acarrier that can take the load.

Carrier Tendering Configuration

Carriers can set up Sterling TMS to automaticallyaccept tenders from one or more shippers in defined service areas.

Carrierscan also specify Tender Notification Parameters for each shipper:

• Does the carrier accept EDI tenders from the shipper? Or doesthe shipper need to tender online in Sterling TMS
• For LTL shipments will the shipper send EDI 204 or EDI 211 transactionsto the carrier?