6 tips for winning a tender for transportation services

A tender for transportation services is a central aspect of everyday procurement.

For our modern life to function, the transportation sector is pivotal. According to a national report, the logistics sector contributed £127 billion to the UK economy in 2021. This means major economic opportunities for those who want to win transport tenders. Luckily, you’ve found Transport Tenders. In this blog, we’ll provide an insight into sourcing and winning transportation tenders.

Where can I find transportation tenders?

Our Transport Tenders portal uploads a wide range of relevant tenders in the logistics industry across the UK. By removing unreliable CPV codes, we’ve created a portal that infinitely smoothens the process of tender searches.

What is Transport Tenders?

Transport Tenders is a time-saving tool. Our Opportunity Trackers manually search
hundreds of sites for the newest logistics and transport opportunities. Once they are
uploaded to our portal, you can filter the results by budget, keyword, location and more.

Below are previous transportation tenders sourced on our portal:

Provision of Storage and Transportation Services for the British Embassy in Bogotá Colombia 

Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office – International – £96,500

Provision of Fine Arts Transportation Services

Glasgow Life (Culture & Sport Glasgow) – Scotland – Budget: £90,000

Transport services for General haulage

BIP Solutions Limited – West Midlands – Budget: £501,000

Contract for the Secure Collection and Transportation of High-Risk High Value Seized Goods

Home Office – London – £2,000,000

Transport of Artwork

University of East Anglia – Eastern – £600,000

6 ways to upgrade your bid responses

1.    Begin shaping your bid around the client

It should go without saying, but a tender for transportation services needs to be thoroughly read. Unfortunately, some suppliers rush into the tendering process and miss important details. The buyer won’t take misunderstandings well. So, allocate some time to really digest the material. Once you’ve started your bid, frame it around the language of the client. If they’ve put particular emphasis on a phrase or term, utilise this to reflect your understanding. If it’s a good tender, they’ll have clear instructions for the structure of your response. A good rule of thumb when it comes to responses is to stick to the word count. If you don’t, you could be marked down.

2.    Manage your time effectively

Much like transportation services, managing time is vital to success. Unfortunately, we’ve seen too many brilliant tenders take too long, and it costs the supplier the ultimate price. Take time aside to get your team together and organise progress meetings. These need to be regular and helpful for everyone in recognising how close they are to finishing. This activity can aid in building team morale, as everyone sees their contributions to the project in real-time. Even if you’re working on your own, it’s still vital to use internal deadlines so that you keep organised.

3.    Research the buyer and the competition

Taking time to investigate the buyer is imperative to win a tender for transportation services. What is their mission statement? Do you have a USP that you think would appeal to the buyer? As well, it’s advantageous to research your market and investigate the other services out there. If your competition doesn’t provide a specific service that you offer, your emphasis will raise the buyer’s attention. Ultimately, it’s a great way to stay ahead of the competition.

4. Define Your USP

Every business has a service or aspect that stands out. To win a tender for transportation services, you need to recognise and emphasise your USP (Unique Selling Point). Don’t forget to keep the buyer in mind, and how this will directly benefit them. Ultimately, the sooner you figure out what makes your service shine, the closer you’ll be to winning that contract.

5. Showcase the right testimonials

Getting the right case studies and testimonials can act as gold dust in appealing to the buyer. Relevant case studies can really add that validation to your business and provide an insight into working with you. Alternatively, providing irrelevant testimonials can harm your chances of success. So be careful in picking the best evidence.

6. Get your bid design just right

Imagine that you’re the buyer, and you’re evaluating numerous responses. Some of them are bland in their colour choices are a violent mess of shades. The bids that stand out are the professional bids, with real thought, time and effort invested into them. So, working on your bid design can improve your chances of standing out to the buyer.

A tender for transportation services can be highly sought after, so outsourcing your bid design service should be considered. In fact, our sister company, Vocal, offers two levels of bid design. These take your brand and identity into account, producing a customised design that will intrigue buyers.

In Summary

So, we’ve reached the conclusion to this blog on winning a tender for transportation services. For those who need it, we’ve included a short recap of everything covered today.

• Where can I source a tender for transportation? – A look into Transport Tenders, the easy way to source transport tenders.
• Begin shaping your bid around the buyer – Digesting the material set out by the buyer and responding exactly to their instructions.
• Manage your time effectively – Organising progress meetings and internal deadlines to ensure you’re ready before the deadline.
• Research the buyer and competition – Looking into the buyer’s mission statement and investigating what services your competition offers. Comparing your services and emphasising offerings that the competition doesn’t have.
• Define your USP – Pinpointing the offering or aspect of your business that’s unique and showcasing that in the bid.
• Get your bid design just right – Taking the time to work on the design of the bid and outsourcing it for a professional look.
• Showcase the right testimonials – Being selective in your choice of testimonials and case studies. Choosing only the most relevant evidence to impress the buyer.

Need help writing a bid?

Writing isn’t everyone’s strong suit and that’s ok. Outsourcing your tender to bid specialists can help you secure your next contract.

At our sister division, Hudson Succeed, they pride themselves on being bid writing experts.

They hold an 87% success rate and have over 60 years of collective bid writing experience.

They offer four levels of bid writing support to suit every business need.

Our services include:

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written a tender response and want someone to double-check it for errors, then Tender Mentor is for you. One of their Bid Writers will proofread it for any grammar or spelling mistakes. They’ll also check it’s in line with the specification before you submit.

Tender Writing

If you’ve found the perfect tender for your business, but don’t know where to start – send it our way. Their Bid Team will take care of it all for you, providing you with a full Tender Writing breakdown. They’ll let you know what they need from you and even submit it on your behalf!

Tender Ready

Their Tender Ready programme is designed for those who are completely new to the tendering process. This programme works with you to ensure you have everything in place to tender successfully. The programme also includes bid writing support and a 12-month Discover subscription to a portal of your choice.

Tender Improvement

If you’ve already been tendering for work, but aren’t seeing success, their Improvement programme can help. During the programme, their Bid Writers will assess your previous submissions and supporting documents. They’ll then give you feedback and guidance on how to improve.

Both Tender Ready and Tender Improvement offer:

• Access to our Global Bid Director and Senior Bidding Professionals with decades of bidding experience.
• The development of an organisation-wide bid library. This includes 3 case studies, 5 company CVs and 8 policies.