STRATEGIC

LTL BIDDING
FOR MINIMUM COST
AND MAXIMUM
EFFICIENCY
LTL PROCUREMENT
 VISIBILITY

IN LTL PROCUREMENT, YOU NEED TOTAL VISIBILITY WORK WITH YOUR BEST CARRIERS
Procuring less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier services is Effective LTL procurement means smart information
anything but standard procurement. sharing between shippers and carriers. So instead of using
a constantly shifting LTL carrier mix, paper quotes, and
In fact, without the ability to accurately assess carriers complicated, disjointed bid information, join the savviest
complex services and fees, any procurement professional shippers and logistics service providers in North America.
is essentially operating blind. Worse, they may be
introducing operational or financial risk into their They rely on the SMC Bid$ense LTL procurement
organization without knowing it. solution to choose from hundreds of qualified LTL carriers
and achieve significant savings on their LTL bids.
A focus on securing the cheapest carrier pricing can
easily mean choosing the wrong carriers; overspending; Its a minimal investment that makes maximum sense.
poor carrier service; increased claims or late payments;
and even undermined profits and diminished corporate
credibility.

The hidden value and efficiencies different carriers

provide are invisible, making it difficultat bestto
build core carrier relationships or successfully secure
reliable capacity over the long term.

Look to SMC for transparent pricing technologyto

manage the intricacies of comparing pricing and service
offerings across LTL carriers; focus on cost and negotiation
savings; balance business risk with benefits; and confidently
build the strategic carrier relationshipsyouneed.

With Bid$ense, we can look at keeping all the carriers, Between the data we give carriers and support from
using only incumbents, or removing carriers to SMC3, our bids are much easier than if we were doing
efficiently weigh our potential savings versus our risk. them all in-house.
Having gone through a bid with this technology, I cant
imagine doing it the old way. Scot Moe,
Supply Chain Analyst
Carey Skoglund, IEWC
National Logistics Manager
Ace Hardware

smc3.com | 2
 TRULY STRATEGIC

GET A STRATEGIC BID PROCESS MOVING WITH BID$ENSE

SMC3 designed Bid$ense for complete
procurement transparency. Youll move
ahead with ease and confidence toward
best-choice carrier qualification and truly
strategic LTL procurement.

With your clear request for pricing goals in

place, Bid$ense can do its work, drawing
on best-practices protocols to streamline
your communication process.

You can easily load quality data from

various sources, enabling bidding carriers
to respond accurately and confidently to
your RFP parameters.

Bid$ense does the distribution work for

you, electronically submitting your RFPs
to carriers based on their actual service
Use the standard SMC3 format or easily customize your carrier- capabilities and performance records
qualifying questions to meet your bid goals. to assure you make your best carrier
match and get your best geographic
coverageand pricing.

Bid$ense automation alerts carriers with

timely prompts for RFP deliverables and
collects accurate, comprehensive carrier
responses from more than 200 national
and regional carriers.

Each bid has more than one best outcome

for your organization. With uniform
responses from each carrier, you can
rank your results and create an unlimited
quantity of what-if scenarios to make the
optimal procurement decision.

Weve been very happy with the number of carriers that Bid$ense can handle and its support of lane-specific
information which allows carriers to get more aggressive with their pricing. Other tools didnt offer the standardized
templates for entering shipment data or have sound methodologies for analyzing and optimizing carrier selection.

Art Nourot, Director of Carrier Procurement, Unyson Logistics A Hub Group Company

3 | CarrierConnect XL Brochure
 LTL PROCUREMENT

GUARANTEED SUCCESS: YOU NEED IT, BID$ENSE HAS IT

The Flexibility and Granularity You Need The Bid$ense Dashboard:
Your Personalized Bid Command Center
Bid$ense enables the carriers bidding on your business
to be more flexible with their pricing, keeping accessorial Locate the best carriers for the job. Bid$ense provides
charges to a minimum and providing lane-specific a 360-degree view of carriers service qualifications
discounting. (A contractual across-the-board discount soyoucan:
can actually eliminate the carriers ability to provide lane-
by-lane discounts that reduce your overall transportation Weigh your options
costs.) And unlike many procurement tools that do not
take minimum charges into account, Bid$ense factors Refine your approach
them into your resultsa vital attribute, since minimum
charges can account for up to 30 percent of your Successfully meet all your RFP criteria and objectives,
transportationcharges. including maximum savings

The Record-Keeping and Compliance You Need

Save, rate and rank your best transportation scenarios, so

youre not continually inputting constantly changing data.
Youll easily rate and re-rate your shipments. Bid$ense
functionality also assures you comply with corporate
routing guides and that post-implementation carrier
performance is clearly defined and measured, so you
have a complete picture of your bid results.

smc3.com | 4
 MAXIMIZE RELATIONSHIPS

COMPREHENSIVE SAVINGS AND SIMPLICITY FOR YOUR ENTIRE ORGANIZATION

Bid$ense easily integrates with your business processes
and practices. Once you decide which carriers will be
awarded your business, SMC3 saves each carrier response
into a CSV file. This consistent information is easily reloaded
and released to your internal or third-party transportation
management system (TMS), warehouse management
system (WMS), enterprise resource planning (ERP) system,
and freight payment and procurement departments. All
the members of your team will have the information they
need, when they need it, to do the job they need to do.

With its robust, efficient communication and analysis

protocols, Bid$ense passes significant savings along to your
organizationmeasured not just in dollars, but also in hours
for your IT, freight payment and procurementdepartments.

The days of choosing the wrong carriers, the wrong

service levels, the wrong discount scenarios, and even the
wrong base rates are gone. Each party to your RFP is on
thesamepage.

Carrier data flows easily from Bid$ense to all relevant parts

of your organization.

5 | CarrierConnect XL Brochure
 MINIMIZED COSTS

MAXIMIZED RELATIONSHIPS; MINIMIZED

COSTS. IT JUST MAKES SENSE. WHY SMC3?
Maximize your LTL procurement process with Bid$ense SMC is the leading LTL data and solutions provider to the
and realize your optimized cost-to-performance ratio. freight transportation community. More than 5,000 North
Browse our Bid$ense success stories and download our American shippers, carriers, logistics service providers,
LTL Purchasing Best Practices white paper today at technology providers, and freight-payment companies rely
www.smc3.com/go/Bidsense. on our sophisticated LTL base rates, content, and expert
procurement and planning tools to optimize business
Ready to talk with us? Give us a call at 800.845.8090 or decisions, achieve higher return on their transportation
email [email protected]. investment, and meet the dynamic demands of the market.

Learn how you can rely on SMC for high-quality data,

products, customer service and Hosted Technology
Solutions for extremely accurate and up-to-date LTL
content. Contact SMC today at 1.800.845.8090 or email
[email protected] for more information.

More Great SMC3 Supply Chain Technology Solutions:

Refined over 25 years, SMC CzarLite

is used routinely throughout North
America as the basis for thousands of successful pricing
agreements that represent several billion dollars in annual
managed transportation spending.

The SMC solution for managing

shipment rating and pricing,
RateWare XL is used by hundreds of transportation and
technology professionals every day to apply intelligent
rating processes within their supply chains.

Stay up to date with

the most accurate and
complete LTL carrier transit and service information
available.

Virtually everyone in this office is familiar with Bid$ense. Its one of the more visible pricing tools our customers use.

Steven Hogan, President/CEO of Asaph Consulting, LLC

smc3.com | 6
 Contact SMC3 today at 1.800.845.8090 or email
[email protected] for more information.
Copyright 2015 Southern Motor Carriers Association, Inc. SMC, Bid$ense,
CzarLite. RateWare amd CarrierConnect are registered trademarks of Southern
Motor Carriers Association, Inc. PI#20224-L

SMC3 ATLANTA HEADQUARTERS

500 Westpark Drive
P.O. Box 2040
Peachtree City, GA 30269
Tel: 770.486.5800
Fax: 770.486.7649
www.smc3.com