A Streamlined Tool for the Entire Network
The freight network EURODIS tenders its transports via TENDER from Cargoclix – and has had good experiences with it. (Photo: EURODIS)
In 2018, the EURODIS freight network decided to use standardised software for transport tenders in future. The decision was made in favour of the TENDER logistics platform from Freiburg-based software company Cargoclix, which makes the cooperation’s work much easier in many areas.
Freiburg i.B., 11 January 2024 – When Stephan Kübler, Network Director of the freight network EURODIS, headquartered in Weinheim, thinks about tendering processes, the topic no longer causes him sleepless nights. Although the 16 EURODIS network partners, who are positioned throughout Europe, carry out well over 100 international transports per day and have to find suitable service providers for this and for new connections, this is not an area of responsibility that causes stress, despite the considerable sum involved. “It wasn’t that long ago that things were different,” Kübler reports and laughs. Previously, classic Excel spreadsheets were used for these processes – and lots of them. “That was a huge amount of work,” he recalls. “And this effort tied up resources. In view of our strong growth, we also needed a more efficient solution.”
The EURODIS head office in Weinheim does not carry out its own transports. This is done exclusively by the network partners. However, the head office coordinates, organises and plans, provides the central IT and defines fixed quality assurance standards for all partners. Quality – this criterion should also apply to tenders. A project team from network planning got together at the time, scrutinised processes and looked for solutions. “A lean tool that is easy to use – that was our vision,” says Kübler.
After an intensive phase of research, EURODIS opted for the TENDER logistics marketplace from Cargoclix. One of the reasons for the decision was the fact that with TENDER, invoicing is based on allocation and there are no costs for provision. Gradually, more and more transports were put out to tender via TENDER, all of them since 2020. “The network partners responded very positively to the introduction of TENDER and the central coordination of tenders; nobody felt left out,” continues the Network Director, reporting on the initial period of use: “It quickly became clear that TENDER was a great support. Thanks to its Europe-wide reach, we were now able to find transport partners that we had not previously reached with our tenders,” he adds.
One of the most important functions of the tool for EURODIS is the ability to invite already known service providers to tenders, but at the same time to think outside the box: Who is a new company? Who is a potential transport service provider? The network uses the platform’s various query options to obtain information about the various carriers: Who offers which service? And who quotes what price for which service?
However, when it comes to selecting a service provider, price is only one criterion that is taken into account in the decision-making process. “It alone is not decisive,” explains Kübler. “The quality on offer is at least as important.”
In one of the most recent TENDER tenders, there was feedback from more than 300 freight carriers. All of them offered to carry out the required transports. Around 50 of them were shortlisted and scrutinised more closely. In order to get an idea of their performance, test transports are also repeatedly carried out to see whether the offer is right.
When Stephan Kübler looks back over the past few years since the introduction of TENDER, he comes to a very clear conclusion: “We can absolutely recommend the platform.” This is due not only to the large number of carriers that can be accessed via the platform, but also to the possibility of making a preselection based on certain criteria as part of a tender. “Once this preselection has been made, we can take a closer look at the individual providers,” he says. “This makes the selection process simple and clear.” EURODIS was also impressed by Cargoclix’s high level of user-friendliness and good support. “The employees always dealt with everything quickly, even with individual issues,” reports Kübler. “No matter what consulting service was required, customer service was always a reliable source of support.”
CARGOCLIX TENDER
CARGOCLIX TENDER is a leading marketplace for the electronic tendering of contracts. Adapted to the needs of transport and logistics, TENDER is designed for all important transport modalities and logistics services. Many thousands of companies from industry, trade and logistics worldwide have registered on the platform since 1998 and use TENDER. Cargoclix TENDER is available to all users in the cloud as “Software as a Service”.
System Description
Public tender or closed group of participants
Clients can decide whether a tender should be conducted publicly or in a closed group of participants. Cargoclix has a leading network in the transport and logistics sector, which can be reached via a public tender. .
Closed Invitation to Tender
A closed tender only reaches the service providers selected by the shipper. Non-invited service providers do not see a closed tender.
Rating System
The rating system gives you an insight into an effective evaluation system for service providers and allows you to see how other clients rate a particular service provider.
Blacklist
To ensure that no unwanted service providers take part in a public tender, unsuitable forwarders and carriers can be effectively excluded from your own tenders via a blacklist.
Expansion of the Service Provider Base
Cargoclix TENDER offers an effective way of managing regular service providers. Shippers can easily integrate their system service providers into the platform and organise them clearly into groups. This allows them to keep an eye on all important facts and informative KPIs about the companies at all times.
Pre-qualification of Tender Participants (optional)
Before the actual invitation to tender, there is the option of pre-qualification. In a separate round, invited service providers fill out a questionnaire created by the shipper. In this way, a larger group of service providers can be specifically checked for suitability for the tender project. After prequalification, the shipper decides which service providers should be authorised to submit bids.
System-Supported Creation of the Tender
The preparation of the tender is menu-driven. All components are created step by step. Even the preparation of complex consignment structures for different modes of transport is simple and clear. The matrix supports various field functions (price fields, text fields, drop-down fields, percentage fields, formulae, etc.), optional and mandatory fields, individual and bundled prices, etc.
Transparency in the Tender
When submitting a bid, the client decides how much information the bidders should receive about their own position compared to the competition. The spectrum ranges from high transparency to blind bidding.
Bidding in one or more rounds
The client can decide whether bids should be submitted in one or more rounds on the Internet.
Analysing the tender results
After the bid has been submitted, TENDER supports the effective analysis of the tender results. The system makes it easy to create scenarios with different assumptions and then compare them with each other. TENDER also supports the client in finding the best price under the given restrictions.
Best price
The “Best Price” option calculates the best price under the framework conditions defined by the shipper.
Award decision and conclusion of the contract
The decision to award the contract is made by the shipper. As a rule, the decision is preceded by personal discussions between the shipper and the service provider. In most cases, the conclusion of the contract is documented by both parties signing the contract on which the shipper has based its decision.
Audit-proof archiving of tender results
Once a tender has been finalised, the results are securely stored in the archive. All details of the tender are saved and an award decision can be traced in an audit-proof manner even years later.
Downloading the results
The data stored in the archive is available to the shipper for download and can therefore be easily imported into other applications at any time.
Templates
All previous invitations to tender can be used as templates. Tenders carried out in the past can therefore be easily copied, revised and used as a template for a new tender.
About EURODIS 
EURODIS is a network for international transport with uniform quality standards, end-to-end shipment tracking and country-specific additional services that operates in 38 European countries. Founded in 1993, the cooperation of leading national logistics service providers specialises in transporting and delivering parcels and pallets in a single network. This combined freight service makes it easier for both shippers and recipients to handle consignments and increases flexibility in shipping. EURODIS transports B2B and B2C shipments. The network is managed centrally by EURODIS GmbH in Weinheim (Germany). Its members include companies such as Bonafide (Switzerland), Ciblex (France), Österreichische Post (Austria), PostNL (Netherlands), Redur (Spain/Portugal), SDA (Italy) and trans-o-flex (Germany). In 2022, EURODIS members employed 50,000 people, operated 23,000 vehicles, transported around 982 million consignments and generated revenue of EUR 5.5 billion.
About Cargoclix
Cargoclix is a neutral Internet marketplace for the electronic tendering of transports and logistics services as well as a provider of modular time slot management systems.
The range of services offered by the logistics platform “Cargoclix TENDER” includes worldwide tenders for contracts for road, rail, air freight, sea and inland waterway transport, courier express parcel services and logistics services such as warehousing. With over 28,000 registered members from industry, trade and freight forwarding, TENDER is one of the leading international tender platforms for transport and logistics.
The central product of the time slot management business unit is the modularly adaptable “Cargoclix SLOT” software for optimizing processes at the ramp. With more than 150,000 members, SLOT is one of the most widely used time slot management systems.
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