Waterfall Tendering

Waterfall tendering is the automated process of sequentially offering a load to carriers in routing guide priority order. The system tenders to the primary carrier first. If they reject – or don't respond within a defined time window – the tender automatically cascades to the first backup carrier, then the second, and so on. If no routing guide carrier accepts, the load typically falls to the spot market or triggers a manual intervention.

The waterfall concept addresses a practical reality: carriers reject tenders. Even reliable primary carriers with 90%+ acceptance rates will occasionally decline loads due to capacity constraints, driver availability, or equipment mismatches. Without waterfall automation, each rejection requires a human to manually re-tender to the next carrier – a process that burns minutes per load and hours per day at scale. During peak shipping seasons or market disruptions, manual re-tendering becomes a bottleneck that delays pickups across the board.

Waterfall speed matters. The time between a rejection and the next tender directly affects whether the load makes its pickup window. Best-in-class systems re-tender within minutes – some in seconds – with configurable response windows per carrier tier. They also log every offer and response, creating an audit trail of routing guide compliance and carrier behavior that informs future procurement decisions.

The risk in waterfall tendering is over-reliance on automation without monitoring. If the waterfall consistently falls to the third or fourth carrier, freight costs are escalating silently. Shippers should track waterfall depth – how far down the guide loads typically fall – as a leading indicator of routing guide health and carrier relationship issues.