Contract Logistics That Locks In Your Rate, and Keeps Carriers Honest

Stop wondering whether you’re getting the rates you negotiated. TLI uses your actual shipping history to negotiate carrier contracts built around your freight. Following that, we audit every invoice against those contracts to ensure you pay exactly what was agreed.

Contract logistics is the practice of negotiating fixed, pre-set shipping rates and service terms with carriers ahead of time, instead of manually quoting each shipment individually on the spot market. A 3PL like TLI collects your historical shipment data, uses it to run a competitive Request for Proposal (RFP) with carriers, and locks the winning rates into a signed contract that’s loaded directly into your Transportation Management System (TMS). The result: predictable pricing, less rate volatility, and a paper trail that makes it possible to audit whether carriers are actually billing what they agreed to.
Contract logistics applies differently depending on the freight mode, which is exactly why TLI runs separate playbooks for Less-Than-Truckload (LTL) and Full Truckload (FTL) freight below.

Quick definition for the skimmers: Contract logistics = your shipping data → a carrier RFP → a locked, contracted rate → loaded into your TMS → audited on every invoice.

Why Shippers Move to Contract Logistics

If you’re currently quoting freight on the spot market or re-shopping rates every time a shipment comes up, you’re paying a volatility tax. And you have almost no way to catch it when a carrier bills you outside the terms you agreed to. Here’s what changes once your lanes are under contract:

• Predictability. You know your rate before the shipment moves, not after.
• Negotiating leverage. A carrier competing for your volume under an RFP will price more aggressively than one quoting a single load.
• Accountability. A signed contract loaded into your TMS is a benchmark, every invoice can be checked against it automatically.
• Recovered dollars. Billing errors happen constantly (wrong accessorials, reclassified freight, expired rates applied late). Without a contract and an audit process, most shippers simply never notice.

This is also where a lot of shippers hesitate, because getting here means handing over your shipment data. Fair. Here’s exactly what we do with it, and why it’s worth it.

Step 1 — Send Us Your Historical Shipment Data

We start with what actually happened, not guesses. Send us your LTL shipment history (a CSV export from your TMS, ERP, or even a spreadsheet works): origin zips, destinations, weights, freight class, accessorials, and current rates. If dimensions are included this opens up the contract types we can also source for you. The more history, and details you can share, the sharper the RFP and the stronger your negotiating position. If your data management has been poor up to this point, we can run you on blankets temporarily as we build your data and shipper profile for you, this will arm you best for getting idealized pricing back from the sourcing event with the motor carriers. We often sign NDAs at this point with shippers. Everything you send is handled under confidentiality and used for exactly one purpose: building your rate program.

Step 2 — We Scrub the Data

Step 3 — We Launch a Carrier RFP

With clean data in hand, we take your lanes to our network of 30,000+ vetted carriers and run a competitive Request for Proposal. Because we’re bringing carriers real volume and real lane density, not a single shipment, carriers price aggressively to win your business.

Step 4 — Our Rating Engine Compares Every Bid Against Your Baseline

This is where TLI’s technology does the heavy lifting. Our proprietary rating engine benchmarks every carrier proposal against your scrubbed historical data, lane by lane, so you can see exactly where each bid beats, matches, or loses to what you’re paying today, no manual spreadsheet gymnastics required.

Step 5 — We Lock In the Carriers

Once you’ve selected the winning carrier(s), we finalize the contracted rates and terms, the number you negotiated is the number that’s locked in.

Step 6 — Your Rates Go Live in the TMS

Your new contracted rates are uploaded directly into ViewPoint TMS, so quoting, booking, and rating shipments against the correct negotiated rate happens automatically from day one. No more manually checking a rate sheet.

Step 7 — Every Invoice Gets Audited

This is the step most shippers skip, and where a great deal of the leakage happens. Without this step there consistently appears to be 2-3% of excessive spending. When you partner with TLI, every carrier invoice is automatically checked against your locked contract terms through our freight audit process. If a carrier bills outside the agreed rate, misapplies an accessorial, or reclassifies freight incorrectly, it gets flagged.

Step 8 — We Dispute the Mistakes

We don’t just flag errors, we fight them. Our audit team disputes discrepancies directly with the carrier on your behalf and pursues the recovery. It’s part of why TLI shippers collectively recovered $634,608 in freight bill audit findings last year alone.

The takeaway: an LTL contract without an audit process is just a paper rate. TLI treats the contract as the beginning of the relationship, not the end of the project.

Full Truckload contract logistics works differently than LTL, because FTL pricing lives and dies on lane-specific dynamics: density, seasonality, equipment type, and backhaul opportunities. TLI’s FTL process is built to be low-friction and genuinely no-obligation at every step. There are also intensive motor carrier vetting steps we take to ensure qualified carriers are arriving to pickup your cargo.

Step 1 — Identify Your Recurring Lanes

Contract logistics makes the most sense for lanes you run consistently: weekly, monthly, or seasonally recurring freight where a fixed rate actually pays off. We start this FTL contract sourcing process by identifying which of your lanes have the volume and repetition to justify a contract.

Step 2 — Send Your Data (If You Have It — It Helps)

If you can share historical volume, frequency, origin/destination pairs, and equipment requirements for those lanes, it sharpens everything downstream. No data on hand? We can still build a proposal off current market conditions and your stated lane needs, but the more shipment and lane history you give us, the more precisely we can bid & price it.

Step 3 — We Scrub and Analyze the Lane Data

Just like on the LTL side, we clean and organize what you send so the proposal reflects your real freight patterns: not averages or assumptions. With that said, I have seen shippers respond back following this stage forgetting to advise, “Oh, that was a multi-stop!”, “Oh, this lane requires a drop trailer!” Please be sure to communicate all unique requirements on the front end.

Step 4 — We Deliver a Proposal. No Cost. No Commitment.

You get a clear, side-by-side view of what a contracted rate on your recurring lanes could look like. That’s it. There’s no pressure and no sales script waiting on the other end. If you do not like the proposal then you do not need to move forward.

Step 5 — Your Call

If you like what you see, we launch a full RFP with our carrier network to lock in contracted capacity and rates on those lanes. If it’s not a fit, that’s completely fine, you keep the status quo, no hard feelings, and the door stays open whenever your freight profile changes. Once you give the green light, we take your lanes to market with carriers who have the equipment, lane familiarity, and capacity to commit, and lock in the negotiated rates and service terms.

Step 6 — Contracts Load Into Your TMS, and Every Invoice Gets Audited

Just like LTL, your contracted FTL rates go live in ViewPoint TMS, and every invoice is checked against the agreed terms — with disputes filed on your behalf when something doesn’t match.

The takeaway: you’re never locked into a proposal with a carrier you don’t like. The only thing you risk by sending us your lane data is finding out if you’re overpaying.

Without these essential capabilities, it’s nearly impossible to know whether you’re paying competitive rates or making the best routing decisions. That’s why partnering with a logistics provider equipped with the right technology and experienced transportation professionals is essential. ViewPoint TMS gives shippers the visibility, automation, and analytical tools needed to optimize freight spend, improve operational efficiency, and build a transportation program that scales alongside the business

TMS Technology Information:

• Rating Engine — Benchmarks every carrier RFP response against your historical baseline, lane by lane, so decisions are based on data, not gut feel.
• ViewPoint TMS — Your contracted rates, carrier assignments, and shipment documents (BOLs, PODs, invoices) live in one system, so your team always books against the correct negotiated rate.
• Freight Audit — Every invoice is automatically checked against your contract terms; discrepancies are flagged and disputed on your behalf.
• 30,000+ Carrier Network — Depth and density that gives your RFP real competitive pressure, whether it’s a single recurring FTL lane or a national LTL program. The carrier vetting is also critical as it is not simply a goal of getting the cheapest carrier, it is about getting a qualified carrier that will service your freight well at a fair market value. It is not worth saving $100, and having your freight held hostage by a bad actor, so this is why partnering with TLI is so critical.