Create Carrier Response Template

This page is accessed via Sourcing > Bid Creation > Bid Round > Actions > Create Carrier Response Template.

This action creates a MS Excel spreadsheet to send bid information to service providers (carriers). The data in the spreadsheet is based on the CRT configuration ID specified on the bid round.

Before running this action, you should have defined a lane summary, project, bid round, rate record template, and CRT configuration.

Note: A CRT configuration ID must be specified on the bid round in order to run this action.

Note: In projects and bid rounds for ocean, the equipment group specified on the constraint set must match the equipment group used in the lane summary for the matching lane. If the equipment does not match, then the carrier will see an error when uploading the bid response. This is a result of how Oracle Transportation Sourcing aggregates demand specifically for each equipment group; there is no equipment group conversion factor for ocean.

Create Carrier Response Template

Creating a Carrier Response Template or CRT

1. Select a bid round and click Actions > Create Carrier Response Template.
2. Select the default Transaction Code that will be used for the bid upload response process. The selected transaction code will be included in the carrier response template.
   
   Choices are I (insert), U (update), and IU (insert,update). If U, there must be a record to update. If IU, it will try both update and insert.
3. Optionally for bid rounds other than bid round 1, select a service provider from the Service Providers drop-down list.
   
   If left blank, the CRT is not carrier specific. The Service Provider column is left blank in the CRT and there is no information from previous bids in the template. Select a Service Provider ID from the drop down list to generate a template specific for the given service provider. The generated template will include the service provider’s ID in the appropriate column. This only makes sense for bid rounds 2 and up.
4. Optionally for bid rounds other than bid round 1, select the related prior bid round from the Prior Bid Round ID drop-down list. If you want the template to show the service provider’s bid from the prior bid round, enter a Prior Bid Round ID.
5. If you want to run the action in the background, accept the default of Yes for the Run Job in Background field. The server can time out while waiting for a result if the action is run in the foreground for a large data set. Hence, for large data sets, you need to run the action in the background.
   • If you selected Yes for Run Job in Background, designate a contact in the Contact ID field. When the action finishes, an email will be sent to the contact. Email notification is the only communication method even if fields are populated for other communication methods. There is no results page so the email notification is the only notification.
   • If you selected No for Run Job in Background, you will be asked whether you wish to save the bid report to your hard drive or open it in Excel.
6. Click Generate Carrier Response Template. You will be asked whether you wish to save the template to your hard drive or open it in Excel.

Create Carrier Response Template for Subsequent Bid Rounds

The Service Providers and the Prior Bid Round ID drop-down lists are only relevant for bid rounds other than the first bid round. Let's call these subsequent bid rounds. These lists combine to allow the buyer to generate carrier-specific CRTs containing values from a previous bid round. Below are some examples of when to use these fields:

Example One

The buyer uses a previous bid round to generate carrier-specific CRTs for the subsequent bid round:

• In bid round one, the buyer generates the CRT without specifying a service provider or a previous bid round ID since these fields do not make sense at this point in the process.
• Then, the carriers bid.
• In bid round two, the buyer generates CRTs by specifying the service provider and including the bids from bid round one by specifying the previous bid round ID. The service provider ID and bids from bid round one will be included in the new CRT when it is generated.
  
  This is convenient for the carrier since the CRT is now pre-populated with the bids they entered previously. In the second bid round, the carrier can focus on only the bids they want to change while re-submitting bids that remain the same.

Example Two

The buyer can also copy bids from bid round one to bid round two. This example assumes that the carriers are okay with their bids submitted in the first bid round which in most cases is probably a safe assumption.

• In bid round one, the buyer generates the CRT without specifying a service provider or a previous bid round ID since these fields do not make sense at this point in the process.
• Then, the carriers bid.
• For bid round two, the buyer generates a CRT (with no previous bid round or service provider specified) and sets the transaction code to IU or U.
• The buyer informs the carriers that they only need to enter bids on lanes where their bid has changed from bid round one.
  
  Setting the transaction code to IU or U ensures that bids are updated if they are different from the original (U) and/or new bids are inserted (I).

Generated Carrier Response Template

The generated carrier response template is a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet file containing the formatted information from the CRT configuration ID specified on the bid round.

The spreadsheet contains the following tabs:

Carrier Response Template Tab

The first tab titled CarrierResponseTemplate is for bid entries by the service providers. This tab contains the columns listed in the lane attributes and rate attributes sections of the CRT configuration as well as NMFC, currency, count and unit of measure columns which are not listed in the CRT configuration.

Location Group Details Tab

If your are sourcing shipments with a transport mode of VESSEL-CO which use arbitrary locations, you see a tab titled Location Group Details.

Project Details Tab

The Project Details tab contains read-only project attributes as selected on the Project Attributes tab of the CRT Configuration. This includes the flex fields available through the user-defined Project manager. When you specify the bid round ID on the Create Carrier Response Template screen, Sourcing uses the project specified on the bid round to pull in the appropriate columns to the generated carrier response template.

Conditions Tab

The tab titled Conditions is for read-only conditions for cost components as well as other miscellaneous conditions. This tab may contain the following non-biddable cost conditions depending on the costs specified in the CRT configuration:

• Cost Per Distance
• Discount
• Out of Route
• Cost Per Stop
• Fuel Surcharge
• Insurance
• NMFC

Other miscellaneous conditions may include a list of valid values for the following:

• Transaction code
• Equipment Group ID
• Transport Mode ID
• Minimum shipment percentage requested
• Maximum shipment percentage requested
• Transit day
• Transit hours
• Transit minutes
• Bid sequence number - Sequence number associated with the bid: 1, 2, 3... . For example, the first time a carrier enters a bid against a lane, the bid sequence number is 1. The second bid against the same lane, the bid sequence number would be 2, and so on. In order to enter multiple bids against the same lane in the same round, something "significant" must change, such as the equipment group or transit time. When the CRT is generated without any prior bid round then all bids will have the default bid sequence number of 1. If prior bid round is selected when generating the CRT, then the default bid sequence number will be that of the bid associated to the prior bid round.