RFP Center of Excellence
Run a drayage TMS RFP that actually protects you.
Most TMS RFPs are written from generic templates, answered with checked boxes, and won by the vendor with the best proposal team. This section gives you the drayage-specific requirements template, the cost structure to make every vendor price, and a fast way to bring Conterminal into your process — whether or not we win it.
Why RFPs go wrong
Four ways a drayage TMS RFP fails before it starts.
The template is multi-modal, so drayage is a footnote
Generic TMS RFP templates are written for truckload networks. They ask about lane optimization and carrier scorecards, and never mention last free days, per-diem terms, interchange receipts, chassis, or terminal appointment systems — the things that decide whether a drayage operation makes money.
Features get checked; data quality doesn't
Every vendor checks the 'container tracking' box. The RFP that protects you asks how the data is collected, from how many independent sources, what happens when they disagree, and how you'd know when a feed silently breaks.
The price is a number when it should be a structure
Quote-based pricing means the RFP's job is to force every vendor to price the same list: seats, modules, integrations per partner, implementation, training, support, and renewal. A single bottom-line number hides the lines that grow.
Nobody prices the demurrage
The most expensive line in drayage software isn't the license — it's the deadline the system surfaced too late. An RFP that never asks how cost deadlines are computed has skipped the money question.
The resources
Start here.
The drayage TMS RFP template
Ten requirement sections written for container drayage — data quality, cost control, dispatch, drivers, documents, integrations, performance, pricing, implementation, and security. Copy it, trim it, and send it to every vendor, including us.
Open the templateInvite Conterminal to your RFP
What to send, what you get back, and how fast. Written responses to every requirement, a live demonstration on your own container numbers, and a proposal where every billable unit is defined before you sign.
Invite usAlso useful while you evaluate: the feature-by-feature matrix, the ten cost lines and exposure calculator, and the five latency questions for any vendor demo.
Shortcut
Running an RFP right now?
Send it over as-is — whatever template it's in. We respond in writing to every requirement and demo against your real containers.