Send Bid Invitation

This page is accessed via Sourcing > Bid Creation > Bid Round > Actions > Send Bid Invitation.

With a carrier response template and the lane summary generated (for LTL use the Shipment History Report and Lane Summary Report) and ready to go, you can invite your carriers to bid using the Send Bid Invitation action. You can include a short note for the carriers in the email, as well as, attached separate instructions.

The Send Bid Invitation action on the bid round page sends an email to the sourcing contact on each service provider in your bid round.

Note:The action checks that all service providers have a sourcing contact defined before running. If any of the carriers do not have a sourcing contact, you see a message and the service providers are listed in the Service Providers Without Sourcing Contact section.

Sending a Bid Invitation

1. Select a service provider or all service providers (ALL) from the Service Providers drop-down list.
   
   This list contains only those service providers included in the service provider profile ID listed on the constraint set specified on project or bid round.
2. In the Description to Service Providers field, you can include a short note for the carriers in the email.
3. Next to Attach Documents, click Browse... to select documents to attach.
   
   At the very least, you will want to attach the carrier response template. You can also attach the lane summary, and any reports you want your carriers to see, as well as separate instructions. You may want to attach an instruction document telling carriers how to log into Oracle Transportation Management, edit the carrier response template, and upload the carrier response template. You can upload a .xls, .xlsx, and .pdf.
4. Once a document is selected, click Upload to upload the document(s).
5. Click Send Bid Invitation to send the invitation to all selected carriers.

Each carrier will receive your email with the carrier response template to bid in. The email invitation also contains the note you entered in step 2 and any attached documents. The email also lists the opening and closing dates of both the Oracle Transportation Sourcing project and bid round.

Note: If you run this action and remain logged into OTM, then open the bid invitation and click the View Lane Summary link, you will see an error. Please log out of OTM prior to attempting to view the lane summary.

Example Bid Invitation

You can include whatever documents your carriers need in the bid invitation. The only thing that must be given to the carriers is the CRT. An example bid invitation could include the following:

• Introductory Letter: Create a procedure containing exactly how the carriers can access OTM, upload bids and commit bids.
• SERVPROV Instructions
• Carrier Response Template XLS file. The default CRT is locked with a <null> or blank password. You might want to edit the CRT before sending it and either change the password or unlock the file.
• LTL Lane Summary and LTL Shipment History reports

SERVPROV Instructions

Prior to creating the SERVPROV instructions, you should complete the following:

• Make sure that service providers exist in OTM and that they have the proper user association
• Make sure that each service provider has a Sourcing Contact with a valid email address
• Create user accounts for carriers if they are missing
• Manage passwords
• Double-check that all carriers can log into the SERVPROV domain of OTM