AI Operators · Use cases
Customer tendering automation
Respond to logistics customer tenders with AI Operators. Map templates, assign lanes and prepare pricing and response files—with commercial control.
Discuss customer tenderingYour SOPs. Your systems. Your team in control.
- For your team
- Commercial, sales and pricing teams responding to customer tenders.
- Starts with
- A customer tender file, requirements and a response deadline.
- Delivers
- A complete, validated customer response prepared for the agreed approval and submission process.
The operational opportunity
For the team preparing the customer offer.
Customer tendering starts when a customer invites your logistics company to propose a transportation solution. Commercial, sales and pricing teams must interpret the requirements, coordinate lane owners, gather cost inputs and return a complete offer in the requested format.
Shipflow AI Operators handle the repetitive preparation and coordination around those decisions. The workflow connects customer-template mapping, lane assignment, pricing references, review and response preparation. Your team owns the price, margin, service commitment and decision to submit.
Choose this sub-use case when customer-specific spreadsheets, incomplete lane inputs or repeated bidding rounds are slowing your response. If the main task is inviting carriers and awarding transport capacity, start with Supply tendering instead.
Tender workflows are configured to your process. Modules, supported file formats, data sources and system connections are agreed and validated for each deployment.
How it works
From customer requirements to a response ready for review.
Read the tender and map the lanes
Extract origins, destinations, volumes, equipment, service conditions and required price fields from supported Excel files, PDFs, attachments or portal exports. Map them into a consistent lane structure. Unclear fields go to a reviewer; confirmed mappings can be reused for recurring templates.
Assign work to the right teams
Route lanes to the responsible country desk, pricing team or operations owner using your assignment rules. Keep ownership, outstanding inputs and deadlines visible, so a large tender does not depend on repeatedly forwarding spreadsheets between offices.
Build a pricing recommendation
Bring together relevant historical costs, existing contracts, current carrier quotations and available market benchmarks. Comparable lanes, reverse lanes and backhaul opportunities provide additional context where data supports them. Apply your margin floors and pricing rules, keeping sources visible and recommendations open to adjustment.
Coordinate review and subsequent rounds
Collect internal decisions and incorporate customer feedback, target prices or lane rankings when supplied. Track revised prices against the previous round. Commercial exceptions and changes to service commitments remain with the people authorized to approve them.
Return the response in the customer’s format
Map approved prices and answers back into the agreed customer template. Validate required fields, lane coverage, columns and formulas before release. Template preservation is tested on representative files; unsupported structures are reviewed rather than silently rewritten.
Human control
Automate the routine. Keep judgment with your team.
Execute within agreed rules
- Read supported customer files and reuse confirmed field mappings.
- Assign lane owners and follow up on outstanding inputs.
- Organize pricing references and prepare calculations under agreed rules.
- Prepare the approved response in the agreed customer format.
Escalate when needed
- Uncertain mappings, missing costs or unsupported template structures.
- Prices outside margin rules and changes to service commitments.
- Final commercial decisions and approval to submit.
- Lanes that need fresh sourcing or additional operational input.
Getting started
Build around the way your operation works.
Bring representative customer tenders
Include the original workbook, completed responses and examples of later-round changes. Define required fields, supported formulas, lane ownership and what makes a response complete.
Map the pricing inputs
Identify costs, contracts, current carrier quotations and available market references. Agree when historical or comparable-lane information can inform pricing and when fresh sourcing is necessary.
Define review and release
Set margin floors, service-commitment approvals and submission responsibilities. Validate the output template with your team before enabling the agreed workflow. System access and supported formats are scoped for the deployment.
Measure completed work, not just AI activity.
Compare the same response scope before and after automation. Separate preparation quality and speed from win rates, which also depend on price, service fit and competition.
- Manual preparation time per customer tender
- Lanes completed before the deadline
- Missing inputs and response corrections
- Time needed to prepare a revised round
Common questions
Before you put an AI Operator to work.
Is this for receiving tenders or issuing them?
Customer tendering is for tenders your logistics company receives and responds to. If your team issues a tender to carriers and selects suppliers, that is the Supply tendering sub-use case.
Can we keep our customers’ original tender spreadsheets?
Yes, the workflow is designed to map approved responses back to the customer’s required template. Supported structures, formulas and export behavior are validated using representative files during setup. Unrecognized formats require review; there is no assumption that every workbook can be processed unchanged.
Will AI set our final selling prices?
No. AI Operators can prepare pricing recommendations using approved inputs and rules. Your team retains final authority over selling prices, margins, service commitments and submission.
What happens when historical or market-rate data is missing?
The lane is flagged for additional sourcing or human review. Historical prices and market benchmarks are references, not automatically current, confirmed carrier quotations. Coverage, recency, service scope and validity must be checked before a rate is used.
Start with one workflow
Bring the customer tender your team is preparing.
Map the inputs, decisions and systems with Shipflow. Define a useful first deployment with clear boundaries and measurable outcomes.
Discuss customer tendering