How to Run a 3PL RFP

An RFP asks 5 to 8 3PLs to spend two to four weeks each building a custom quote. That is real work on their side, and it only pays off when the brand is ready to act on the result. Before you go to market, check three things:

• Volume. Below roughly 1,000 orders a month, most 3PLs will quote from a standard rate card rather than build a custom model, so a full RFP adds little. Get Matched or the 3PL Rate Checker will get you comparable quotes faster. Above that line, a custom RFP is where 3PLs build a model around your operation, and the difference between bidders is usually large enough to justify the month it takes.
• Commitment. The founder or operations lead needs to be in the 3PL calls, review the bids, and make a decision on a timeline. 3PL Hub qualifies brands on exactly this point before agreeing to run an RFP, because a process that stalls after bids come in burns the goodwill of every 3PL that quoted.
• Timing. Count back from the date you need to be live. Bids take 2 to 4 weeks, evaluation and negotiation 2 to 3 weeks, and onboarding 4 to 10 weeks. Starting an RFP in September for a Q4 peak is already late.

Time 1 dayOutput a go or no-go, a decision maker, and a target live date

The pack is what separates an RFP from a "can you quote us" email. It has two parts: a short overview document that tells 3PLs what you are looking for, and the raw data they need to price it. 3PL Hub sends the overview as a 10 to 15 page PDF; a well-organized document in any format works.

The overview document

• About the brand. Products, channels, growth trajectory, and why you are going to market now.
• What you want in a 3PL partner. Be specific: brand-centric packaging, a client portal your team will live in, retail compliance experience, a second location within 18 months. This section is how 3PLs decide whether to bid seriously.
• Inbound volume. Containers or pallets per month, cartons per pallet, whether goods arrive floor-loaded, and any prep needed on receipt.
• Storage. Pallets or bins on hand in a typical month and at peak, SKU count, lot or expiry tracking, and any temperature or hazmat requirements.
• Outbound volume by channel. DTC, wholesale, marketplace and retail orders per month, with peak months called out and units per order for each channel.
• Technology. Cart, ERP, marketplaces, and whether you need EDI for retail accounts.
• Value-added services. Kitting, inserts, subscription boxes, gift wrap, FBA prep, returns processing.
• Process and timeline. Response deadline, Q&A window, how questions get answered, and the decision date.

The raw data

• A 12-month order export with order date, channel, SKUs, units, destination ZIP or postcode, and shipped weight where you have it.
• A SKU master with dimensions, weight, case pack, and any handling flags.
• A shipping export from your carrier accounts if you have one. Service level, zone, billed weight and cost per parcel let 3PLs price courier accurately.
• For retail: the retailer list and a few example retail orders so 3PLs can see routing-guide and labeling requirements.

Time 3 to 5 days if your exports are cleanOutput an overview document and a data folder every bidder receives identically

Five to eight bidders is the range that works. Fewer than five and a single dropout leaves you without leverage. More than eight and the evaluation becomes a part-time job, and the 3PLs know their odds are too long to bid seriously. Build the field from a real match on location, vertical, channel mix and volume fit; the 3PL Hub directory holds 5,000+ 3PLs, 200+ of them fully vetted and authenticated, and the shortlisting method in the selection guide applies here.

Give the field two to four weeks to respond. A custom quote means a 3PL runs your order data through its own cost model, checks capacity at the warehouse you would ship from, and prices courier against your actual parcel profile. A ten-day window tends to produce rate cards. A three-week window produces quotes.

Send the pack with a single point of contact for questions and a fixed Q&A window. Answer every question to every bidder at once, so the field stays on the same information.

Time 2 to 4 weeks response windowOutput 5 to 8 3PLs working from the same pack

Every RFP 3PL Hub runs is a blind quote. No bidder learns who else is in the field, and no bidder's rates are shared with another, during the process or after it. Two reasons: 3PLs put their best pricing forward when they are bidding against the brief rather than against each other's numbers, and a 3PL that sees its rates shopped once will never bid seriously for you again.

The same standard applies to the advisor, if you use one. 3PL Hub takes no commission from 3PLs and no award fee for steering a decision, and the brand's bid sheet is never shown to anyone outside the brand. If a consultant is paid by the 3PL that wins, the RFP is a sales channel for that 3PL.

Time half a dayOutput a one-page process note sent to every bidder with the pack

Left to their own format, eight 3PLs will send eight rate cards built on eight sets of assumptions: one prices picks per unit, one per order plus a per-unit add-on, one bundles packaging, one charges storage per pallet and another per cubic foot. The bid sheet fixes the line items and the volumes, so the only thing that varies between columns is the rate.

The template below is the structure 3PL Hub uses on managed RFPs, stripped of client data. Enter your annual order and unit volumes at the top, paste each 3PL's rates into its column, and the sheet calculates annual cost per line, a modeled annual total, cost per order and cost per unit, both including and excluding courier, and a price rank. Fit, SLA and experience ranks are entered by you after reference calls, and the sheet rolls them into an overall score.

What the bid sheet covers

Ask every bidder to complete the sheet as sent. A 3PL that returns its own rate card instead is telling you how it will handle billing questions later.

Time 1 day to adapt the templateOutput 5 to 8 completed bid sheets on identical line items and volumes

Bids are rarely wrong on the fulfillment lines. The gaps are in courier, because that is where the numbers are hardest to check and where the largest share of the invoice sits. Three things to normalize before any comparison:

Courier accessorials

A courier rate is a base rate. On top of it sit residential delivery, DAS and EDAS surcharges, fuel, and peak surcharges. For a DTC brand, 80 to 95% of parcels are residential and a meaningful share land in DAS ZIPs. A bid that quotes base rates and lists accessorials "at cost" has left a large share of your courier spend off the sheet. Ask every bidder to state each surcharge as a dollar amount or a percentage on the bid sheet, then apply them to your actual order file.

Blended rate cards

Some 3PLs return a single blended rate per parcel instead of a rate card by zone and weight band. A blended rate is only accurate for the shipment profile it was built on, which is rarely yours. Ask for the full card, or at minimum the rates across the weight bands and zones that cover 90% of your order file. If a 3PL cannot produce one, model the blended rate against your heaviest and lightest quartile of orders and see how far it moves.

Dimensional weight

Carriers bill on the greater of actual weight and dimensional weight, where dimensional weight is the parcel's cubic inches divided by a dim divisor. The divisor is negotiated, and it varies by 3PL far more than base rates do. Published carrier divisors sit at 139; 3PL-negotiated divisors range from 166 up to 225, 300 or 400. For a light, bulky product, that spread is the whole decision.

Billed weights are rounded up to the next whole pound, which is how carriers bill. A pillow, a foldable bag, a jacket or a case of snacks in a large box all sit in this range.

Put the dim divisor on the bid sheet as its own line and treat a bidder that will not commit to one in writing as bidding at 139.

Time 2 to 3 days across all bidsOutput every bid restated on your parcel profile with accessorials and dim weight applied

Once the bids are normalized, the bid sheet gives you four numbers per 3PL: modeled annual total, cost per order, cost per unit, and the same two excluding courier. Cost per order excluding courier is the cleanest measure of the 3PL's own pricing; the all-in figure is what hits your P&L. Rank on both.

Then score three things price cannot show, each on a rank from 1 to the number of bidders:

• Fit. How well the 3PL's answers matched the "what we want in a partner" section of your pack. Did they solution your operation, or describe their warehouse?
• SLAs. The accuracy, on-time ship and dock-to-stock commitments they will sign, with the reporting to prove them.
• Experience and references. Two reference calls per finalist, with clients you pick from their list, that ship a product like yours at a volume like yours.

The overall score in the bid sheet is a simple average of the four ranks. Weight it if you have a reason to, but the pattern above repeats across the RFPs 3PL Hub has run: the winner is usually in the top three on price and the top two on fit and references, and it is rarely the floor.

Time 1 to 2 weeks including reference calls and site visitsOutput a preferred 3PL and a backup, with the reasons written down

A 3PL contract is only as good as its termination section. Before rates, before term length, settle how you leave: the notice period, what triggers termination for cause, and what the 3PL owes you on the way out. Four terms to get right:

• SLAs written into the contract, with termination for cause tied to them. Order accuracy, on-time ship, inventory accuracy and dock-to-stock time, each with a target, a measurement method and a monthly report. Repeated failure over a defined window, for example two of any three consecutive months, gives you the right to terminate without penalty. A contract without this clause makes the SLAs a wish list.
• No terms and conditions hosted on a website. Some agreements incorporate "the terms published at" a URL the 3PL controls and can change. Every term you are bound by belongs in the signed document or a dated, attached schedule.
• Notice and exit mechanics. 30 to 60 days notice for convenience, immediate for cause, inventory released and transferred at the contract's published rates, full data export, and no exit fee beyond the work actually done.
• Rate increases indexed, and term length treated as a feature. A three-year term with annual increases tied to a cost-of-living or wage index is predictable pricing; a one-year term with increases at the 3PL's discretion is an annual renegotiation. Term length stops being a risk once the termination-for-cause clause above is in place, because a 3PL that fails its SLAs cannot hold you to the term.

Time 1 to 3 weeksOutput a signed agreement with SLAs, indexed rates and exit terms in the document