Release Date: May 23, 2023



Enabling bidding across multiple currencies, deterring unfair bidding practices, and more in Freight Procurement


  • Introducing Bidding Period Extension

When issuing a Request for Quote in Spot bidding, disputes arise when a vendor becomes the L1 bidder by placing their bid in the final minute of the auction event, thereby effectively scuttling the opportunity for hitherto least quoted vendors. With the latest release, this issue is being addressed by introducing a bidding period extension. An auto-extend option is being introduced in the Admin settings. Under Auto-Extend, the following options are provided:

  • Auto Extend cut-off: Enter the duration in hours and minutes.
  • Extend By: Enter the duration in hours and minutes. 
  • Max time for Auto Extend: Enter the maximum duration in hours and minutes.  


If a bid is submitted just ahead of cut-off time, the bidding period will be automatically extended, and vendors will be notified with the extension of the bid time based on the configured settings. This applies for both web and mobile platforms for transporters. 
This is the message vendor will receive "Bid Expiry Extended to HH:MM AM/PM"


  • Tracking Initial-Final Quote Differences in Procurement Events

With this release, Pando now helps Shippers measure the effectiveness of negotiation during a procurement event. This is achieved by evaluating on the difference between the initial and final quotes provided by transporters. This reflects as Savings percentage in the Quoted and the Allocated section. This helps reevaluate the auction strategy and explore ways to get better rates.


  • Introducing Multi-Currency Bidding to enable flexible currency handling

With the latest release, Pando now supports multi-currency bidding by vendors. A new column called "Currency" has been introduced for each Lot/Lane in the Vendor and Freight Forwarder-Carrier view. To facilitate multi-currency bidding, support for two types of currency—Base Currency and Alternate Currency—have been introduced. Transporters can define the exchange conversion factor for the base currency and the alternate currency.


When enabled, a vendor can place their bid for a Lane/Lot in a currency of their choice which will then be converted to the base currency and displayed to the Shipper. This facilitates flexibility and provides accurate currency conversions throughout the bidding process and reporting.


  • Allocation Attachment in Email for Share of Business

As part of the Share of Business allocation process, Pando now sends the final rates of allocation in the email sent to vendors. The attached rates will be in the Lane/Lot format for easy reference. This enhancement ensures that vendors get insights into the share of business that has been entrusted with them.



Guardrails to prevent invoice generation for shipments with zero or blank base freight value in Payments

With the latest release, our Pay functionality has been enhanced to detect shipments for which base freight has been left blank or zero. Whenever a user forgets to enter the base freight, a check will be triggered and notify the user to fill in the freight rate and re-trigger payments. This feature has been expanded from our earlier feature which could detect anomalous base freights and accessorial charge payments. 

 


Enhancing filters in Collaborative Execution to simplify access to records

For accounts that have gates mapped to their depots, searching for shipments at the gate level can be a constraint as there may be several gates under a depot and zeroing in on the specific gate would be effort intensive. To address this, Pando now supports Gates as a filter. This dropdown feature is now available on Shipper and Transporter applications, allowing users to view shipments at the gate level for both outbound and inbound requests, thereby saving time and effort. 



NOTE: The aforementioned releases have been/will be enabled only for accounts that have the SKUs enabled as a part of their plan. To discover whether a release is applicable for your account, please connect with your account admin or write to [email protected]