Glossary
Tender
A formal offer of a load from a shipper or broker to a carrier, typically sent via EDI 204 or through a TMS/portal, which the carrier accepts or rejects.
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How it works — and why it matters
In a routing guide workflow, a shipper's TMS sends the tender — commonly an EDI 204 — to the first-choice carrier, which has a set window to accept or decline via an EDI 990 response. If the tender is declined or expires, it cascades to the next carrier in the guide or out to the spot market.
Tender acceptance rate is one of the most-watched metrics in shipper-carrier relationships: carriers that reject too many tenders lose contracted volume, while shippers with poorly priced lanes see cascading rejections that raise costs. Fast, automated tender processing directly protects that metric.