What can I do with the Bid Manager?
Import your customer bid files and evaluate their effect on your network
Quickly rate lanes based on historical or market rates, or upload your own rates
Add bid loads to a report to see which lanes will most benefit your business
Test out different rates, and iterate based on feedback from your customers
Evaluate bids to multiple customers simultaneously to see interactions between networks
Why should I use the Bid Manager?
Bidding season is hard - this is your chance to secure reliable business for the year, but it is difficult to look at hundreds of lanes across dozens of different customers, and determine what freight is the best match for your network
Optimal Dynamics makes it easy to import these bids and evaluate which lanes will be the best match, at the right rates, and alongside any other planned changes to your business
How are the recommendations created?
Our forecasting tool reviews the historical data for your tenant, and creates a behavioral profile for your top customers. When the bid file is attached to a report, we use this profile to create individual loads based on the patterns provided in the bid file, each with a realistic pickup time and date, based on that customer’s behavior. We also generate multiple different iterations of this data, so that the samples are as accurate as possible.
Once these loads have been created, we blend them with your historical data, so that they can be evaluated together. Our engine then determines which loads are best covered with your assets, to maximize profit, on-time performance, and reduce empty miles. For bid lanes, these results can be downloaded and returned to the customer as a bid response, or further edited to streamline the bid.
How do I access Bid Manager?
First, we will need at least one year of historical data to train your forecasting model. Once we have that, you can reach out to your account team to enable the feature.
Bid files are created and edited within the Bid Manager, and then can be attached to a report in the Network view.
What is a bid file?
Bid files contain the data used to create the bid loads, which are blended with your historical data. At a minimum, this is the origin and destination zip codes, mileage, volume, periodicity (weekly, monthly, quarterly), and rate per mile. However, other data can be loaded as well, such as load and unload methods or operating hours. These files are managed in the Bid Manager, and when attached to a report, determine the type of loads that are generated within the report.
What kind of locations are supported?
We currently require 5-digit zip codes for both origin and destination. If your bid file uses another type of location (e.g. 3-digit zip code, city/state), please use this list of zip code conversions to help translate into a 5-digit zip code.
How do I determine which rates to use for a lane?
We provide two pricing reference points for a lane:
Historic rate: This is the rate per mile from the historical data provided during onboarding, based on the customer and 5-digit zip code lane.
Market rate: We partner with Freightwaves SONAR for market data, based on 3-digit markets.
This data may not be available for all lanes. If no pricing data is available, you can also set a default rate across all lanes, so that they can be evaluated quickly, and then revise the pricing later.
How many bid files can I evaluate at once?
As many as you want! There is no limit to the number of bid files you can attach to a report, so that you can easily evaluate all of your customer bids together, in a single location.
Can I try multiple iterations of pricing from the same bid file?
Yes - in fact, we encourage it! All changes made to rates or lanes within the Network view are synced with the bid file, so that it is easy to see the latest version of the changes. Bid files can also easily be copied, so that several different versions can be tested in different reports. A good best practice is to create multiple copies, so that the original is preserved.
How long will it take for my Bid Analysis Report to be completed?
You can expect to receive your results within 10 minutes - 1 hour. However, the time may vary based on numerous factors such as the size of your network, number of drivers and the size of your bid file. You will receive an email notifying you when your Analysis is complete.
What is a Lane Score?
A Lane Score is a summary statistic of underlying KPI’s that show the potential impact of procuring freight on a lane at a specific volume & rate into your network.
What is the criteria for Accepted and Rejected Bid Lanes?
The general criteria for Green, Yellow and Red Lane Scores are:
Green - 70 - 100 = Ideal/ Accepted
Yellow - 11 - 69 = Tolerable / Rejected
Red - 0 - 10 = Unacceptable/ Rejected
Why are all of my Lane Scores 0?
There may be several reasons for this.
One or more of your Lane Score KPI’s are outside the acceptable range.
The load volume on the lane(s) is too low and there is not enough volume to run in the simulation.
One or more of your KPI thresholds that are used to calculate your Lane Score, may be too strict. You can request to modify these by contacting customer support.
The Bonuses and Penalties applied to your Bids may need to be adjusted. You can contact customer support for assistance in
How can I change how my Lane Scores are calculated?
Contact Customer Support to submit your change requests.
Where can I see my lane Score KPI Threshold criteria?
When you export your Bid Analysis file, you will be able to see your lane score KPI’s and their current thresholds in the Bidding stats Excel file in the “Lane Score params” tab
What KPI’s can be used to create a Lane Score?
When you export your Bid Analysis file, you will be able to see all available KPI’s in the Lane Stats Excel file. If you do not see a KPI that you would like to add, then you may submit your change request here.
Where can I find the changes that I made to my Decisions, Volume and or Rates?
Finding Changes After Closing Web Browser Or Navigating Away from Your Bid Analysis Results
If you closer your web browser after you have made decision, volume and rate change, you can find those changes in the Draft tab in your Network Manager by locating and opening the Bid Analysis file that you were modifying.
Finding Changes While Viewing Your Bid Analysis Results
If you are making changes to your Rates, Volume Accepted, or Decisions you will be able to view your change activity log by clicking the Chang History button. Within this log you can undo individual changes or undo all changes by clicking the Reset button.
Why did my Bid Analysis Report Fail?
There are numerous reasons why a report can fail. We recommend that you try to create the report again. If it fails after the second attempt, please contact customer support by clicking the question mark icon in the lower left side of the page when in the application.
Where can I find my failed Bid Analysis files?
You can always find you failed Network Analysis files in the Failed tab.
How do I view the Inflow & Outflow Lanes that correlate to my Bid Lane?
To view a complete list of Historical Network lanes that flow into the Bid Lane simply click on the Origin or Destination value or click the 3 dots on the right of the table and select the inflow or outflow button.
What is a Lane Inflow/Outflow?
We use this data to understand the context of how a specific lane fits into your network.
Inflow- A set of movements prior to pick up on the bid lane
Outflow - A set of movements after a Delivery on a bid lane
What is OMKT & DMKT Balance?
The Origin Market Balance represents the net difference between loads leaving and entering the origin market. The value in parentheses represents the contribution this lane has towards balance, where red values signify a negative impact, while green values indicate a positive improvement in this simulation.
The Destination Market Balance represents the net difference between loads leaving and entering the origin market. The value in parentheses represents the contribution this lane has towards balance, where red values signify a negative impact, while green values indicate a positive improvement in this simulation.
How do I know what bid files are attached in my analysis?
In order to see the Bid Files that were used to create your Bid Analysis, you can export your Bid Analysis and see the Bid File that was used to create your Bid Analysis. This file is called “Bid File Modifiable”. You can also use this file to make data changes and re-upload for Bid Analysis processing.
Why are there Lanes missing in my Bid Analysis?
If lanes are missing from your Bid Analysis that were initially in your uploaded Bid File, there could be several reasons. The most common cause is that our AI engines had to discard the lane(s) due to insufficient load volume to run through the simulations.
An additional reason for missing Bid Lanes could be related to corrupted data in the Bid File that was imported into the Bid tool and used to create the Bid Analysis results. This may involve unsupported data values, such as special characters, or invalid data, like null volume and Bid Rates.