Waterfall Tendering

Waterfall Tendering is a G2Mint feature designed to automate the carrier tender process for a lane. Instead of manually tendering a shipment to one carrier, waiting to see if they accept or reject it, and then repeating that process with the next carrier on your list, Waterfall Tendering does it for you.

You define a priority order of carriers for a lane. The system tenders to your first-choice carrier automatically. If that carrier rejects the tender — or simply doesn't respond within a time window you set — the system automatically moves to the next carrier in the list, and so on, until a carrier accepts. You click "Start Waterfall" once, and the system manages the rest.

This feature is most useful when:

• You regularly ship the same lanes with a known, prioritized pool of carriers
• You already have negotiated rates or rate agreements set up for those carriers
• You want to reduce the manual work of checking on pending tenders and re-tendering rejected loads
• You're managing recurring project freight (e.g., store liquidations, closures, or similar multi-load projects) where the same carrier pool services many loads

It applies to any mode, though it's most commonly used for truckload. It can technically be configured for LTL as well, but this is less common since many LTL carriers have pickup APIs that rarely fail, making a waterfall less necessary.

Getting Started

1. Build your custom rate agreements for the carriers you want to include.
2. Create your lanes, defining origin/destination, equipment type (if needed), and your carrier priority order.
3. Set your waterfall interval (how long each carrier has to respond).
4. Start tendering — either manually from the rate drawer's Waterfall tab, or automatically via a workflow.

How It Works

1. Rate Agreements Come First

Before setting up a waterfall, the carriers involved need existing rate agreements (custom agreements) loaded into G2Mint. These can be structured flexibly:

• Fixed amount
• Per-mile
• Per-pallet / CWT
• Point-to-point (city-to-city, postal code-to-postal code, or a mix)
• One origin to a broad destination area (e.g., all 48 states, a list of zip codes, etc.)

If you already have a rate structure built outside the system (for example, in a spreadsheet), it can generally be normalized and uploaded into the rate engine rather than entered manually one line at a time.

2. Configure the Lane

Once rates exist, you set up a Lane in the Lanes module. For each lane you define:

• Origin and destination — this can be location-to-location, city-to-city, postal code-to-postal code, or any combination
• Equipment type (optional) — you can set different carrier priority lists for, say, refrigerated vs. dry freight on the same lane
• Carrier priority order — from the pool of carriers who service that lane, select and drag-and-drop them into the order you want them tendered in (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.)
• Waterfall interval — the amount of time (e.g., 5 minutes) a carrier has to respond before the system automatically moves to the next carrier in line

You can also use the Find Carriers tool when configuring a lane. This runs a sample rate request for the origin/destination and returns every carrier that services that lane, so you can select from real options rather than guessing.

3. Tendering in Action

When a shipment is rated and it matches a configured lane, a Waterfall tab appears in the rate drawer for that shipment. From there:

1. Click Start Waterfall.
2. The system sends a tender (via email, same as a standard tender) to the first carrier in your priority list.
3. That carrier can Accept or Reject the tender.
   • If they reject, the system automatically tenders to the next carrier in the list.
   • If the interval expires with no response, the system treats it the same as a rejection and moves to the next carrier.
4. This continues down the list until a carrier accepts.
5. Once accepted, the load is marked Awarded in G2Mint — the same as if it were manually tendered and accepted. Financials are created automatically, the shipment moves into tracking, and the Bill of Lading (BOL) is automatically updated and ready to print.

Waterfall Tendering can also be triggered automatically through a workflow — for example, automatically starting the waterfall any time a shipment matches a configured lane, without requiring a manual click.

4. Re-Tendering a Load

If a carrier didn't accept a tender but you believe they might take it at a different rate:

• Go to the Rated tab, find that carrier, and click Tender again with an adjusted rate.
• The carrier will see the new (updated) rate when they open the tender.
• Note: there is currently no in-system messaging or negotiation/counter-offer feature — the carrier's options are simply Accept or Reject. Any back-and-forth on price needs to happen outside the system (phone/email).

5. What Happens If Everyone Rejects

If every carrier in the waterfall list rejects or expires, you have a few options:

• Adjust the rate and re-tender to carriers in the list.
• Move the load outside the defined carrier group and cover it another way (e.g., manual spot quoting to a broader carrier list).

Key Things to Know

• Only one active tender at a time. If a carrier tries to accept after their tender has expired, they'll receive an error that it's already expired. This prevents double-booking a load.
• Carrier experience is simple. From the carrier's side, a waterfall tender looks and functions exactly like a standard tender — they just see a load they can accept or reject. There's no added complexity for them.
• You control the carrier pool. Waterfall Tendering only uses the carriers you've explicitly added to a lane — not a broader network or marketplace of carriers.
• Rates are static, not live. The rates used in a waterfall come from what's already loaded into your custom agreements — the system is not pulling live rates from a carrier API in real time (unless that specific carrier integration supports it).
• Flexible for project-based freight. For recurring project work (e.g., store closures, liquidations) with many origins going to a defined set of destinations, you can pre-build a "coverage matrix" of carriers and rates once, then reuse that same waterfall structure across many shipments.

If you have an existing rate structure in another format (e.g., a spreadsheet), your onboarding contact can help you get that uploaded and normalized into the rate engine rather than entering it manually.