Many 3PL and freight relationships start as a relationship and never face a real contest. Costs drift. Service definitions stay vague. Exit is hard because the data sits with the supplier. This file is a contestable process, a scorecard that matches the work, and a contract you can live with. It is not a beauty parade of logos. It is not a commission for us from the winner.
Demand pack before invitations
Volumes, locations, constraints, systems, peak, dangerous goods if they exist, returns, and the exception history you actually have. If you cannot describe the work, the market will describe it for you, in their favour. We write the pack so that a serious operator can price it and a casual operator cannot hide. Incumbents are invited. They are not protected.
Scorecard that matches the work
Cost matters. It is not the only column. Service geography, systems, the right to your data, implementation risk, and the ability to exit without a lock-in belongs on the same card. A 3PL that is cheap and cannot give you a volume extract in a usable form is not cheap. A 3PL that is excellent and cannot cover the lanes you actually ship is not excellent for you. We will not let a polished slide deck outrun those facts.
Contract, SLA, data
Your lawyers finish the contract. We draft the operating meat: SLA, KPI, what happens on failure, who owns the data, how a transition would run. If the KPI cannot be measured from a file you hold, it is not a KPI. It is a poster. We are particular about this because we have seen companies trapped in a relationship they cannot audit.
The client signs. We do not. We do not take a success fee from the supplier. If that disappoints a 3PL who expected to buy the process, they were not ready for a fair contest.
When not to tender
If you have no baseline, go to the cost review file first. Tendering blind is how you buy a cheaper version of the same leakage. If you have already decided the winner, do not hire us to decorate the decision. If you need a truck this week, call your current operator. This file is for when you can wait long enough to do it properly.
What a fair contest looks like
A fair contest is slow on purpose. The demand pack goes out with enough time for a serious operator to walk the volume, not to paste last year's rate card. Questions from bidders come back through one channel so the incumbent does not enjoy a private conversation. Site visits, if needed, are offered to the shortlist, not as a courtesy tour for friends. Scoring is written before envelopes are opened. Changing the scorecard after you meet the salesperson is how contests become theatre.
Incumbents often have better data. That is not a reason to protect them. It is a reason to require data rights in the next contract so you are never in that position again. We will not discount an incumbent for knowing the work. We will not reward them for withholding the file that would let someone else price it. If they cannot produce a usable extract, that is a scorecard event, not a personality clash.
After the winner is named
Transition is where cheap bids become expensive. We write a transition list: data cut-over, stock count, systems access, customer notification, the first month of SLA measurement. The client still signs. The 3PL still operates. We do not run the warehouse. If you want us in the first supplier meeting, that is a scoped extension. If you want us to live in the QBR forever, that is not this practice. Handover means your people can measure the contract without us in the room.