The Hidden Problem in Freight RFPs: Outliers

Freight procurement is built on data—historical trends, market conditions, and shipper-defined benchmarks all play a role in determining competitive rates. But what happens when a bid falls way outside the expected range?

These are outliers—rates that are either suspiciously low or unrealistically high. And while they might seem like one-off anomalies, they actually have a much bigger impact on your RFP than you might think.‍

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Why Outliers Matter More Than You Realize

Most shippers focus on bid averages when reviewing proposals, but outliers quietly disrupt the entire process. Here’s how:

• Distorted Bid Feedback – When shippers share bid rankings with carriers, outliers can skew the results. A carrier might see they’re ranked third, but in reality, the two bidders ahead of them are outliers. If those outliers are removed, that carrier might actually have the lowest real rate.
• Faulty Optimizations – Optimization tools use bid data to project costs and allocate awards. Including outliers can lower projected spend in ways that aren’t realistic, leading to unreliable awards and extra manual adjustments.‍
• High Operational Risk – Awarding a bid that’s too good to be true often results in carriers rejecting tenders later. These “paper rates” create gaps in the route guide and increase tender rejections.

The bottom line? Ignoring outliers leads to bad data, bad feedback, and bad decisions.

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Identifying and Managing Outliers

Shippers need a way to flag and exclude outliers from bid feedback and optimization. By removing outliers, procurement teams get a clearer picture of market rates and provide bidders with more accurate feedback on where they stand—leading to better engagement and more competitive bidding.

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How Emerge Helps Shippers Manage Outliers

Emerge allows shippers to flag and exclude outlier rates from bid feedback and scenarios.

By filtering out outliers, shippers gain cleaner data, better bid feedback, and more reliable procurement outcomes. Carriers also benefit by seeing where they truly rank—without misleading outlier bids affecting their competitiveness.

Taking outliers into account isn’t just about cleaner data—it’s about making smarter, more informed procurement decisions.

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Want to learn more? Let’s talk about how bid feedback and optimization can work better for your team.