Advance Auto Parts: re-tender every lane

Rebid every carrier contract and award each lane on the cheapest plan that still holds service and capacity.

By OneShot · Updated October 23, 2026

Read the solution ↓

What the workflow produces

Carrier award plan

Lanes: Volume, service level, current carrier and rate per lane.
Bids: Rate per lane and carrier, with authority checks and the market benchmark.
Award: Carrier per lane, total cost and the rules that bind.
Acceptance: Carrier confirmations and loads accepted against the award.

The documented problem

On its second-quarter 2026 earnings call on August 20, 2026, Advance Auto Parts’ chief executive said: “We are currently rebidding all of our carrier contracts, and we expect to consolidate our volume with 70% fewer carriers.” He said the initiative was expected to generate tens of millions of dollars in cost savings, which would support margin expansion in 2027. The quarter’s earnings slides list transportation cost savings from carrier consolidation under supply chain, next to a completed distribution center consolidation.

These are Advance Auto Parts’ own statements of a plan, not reported results. Fewer carriers means each one carries more of the volume, so an award made on rate alone fails on the lanes where the cheapest carrier runs out of capacity. The OneShot workflow below re-tenders each lane and awards it on the cheapest plan that holds service, capacity and share limits.

Advance Auto Parts: Q2 2026 earnings slidesPrimary source · Checked 2026-10-23
Advance Auto Parts: Q2 2026 earnings call webcastPrimary source · Checked 2026-10-23

The OneShot solution

Every lane re-tendered on the cheapest plan that holds

Re-tender every lane and award it on the cheapest plan that holds service, capacity and share limits.

What it pays back

Transportation cost cut on the re-tendered network

Counted per lane, awarded rate times volume against the expiring contract rate.

EstimateTens of millions of dollars, toward 2027 marginsBasis: the chief executive’s expected savings of tens of millions of dollars, supporting margin expansion in 2027.

Work enters the queue: A contract near expiry, a change to the distribution network or a carrier that refuses its awarded volume.
Decision owner: Director of transportation procurement

01
Build the bid package
Pull the last twelve months of shipments by lane: origin, destination, volume, equipment and service level, with the current carrier and rate. Add the rules the award must hold: the most any carrier may carry, incumbents to keep and lanes a carrier may not serve.
- Shipment and billing records
- Lane volumes and carrier bids
02
Collect the bids
Send each invited carrier the lanes and volumes and collect a rate per lane by the deadline, chasing missing bids by email. Check each US motor carrier’s operating authority and safety record, and quote US lanes at market rates as a benchmark for bids out of line with it.
- Email
- Email Inbox
- Motor Carrier Record
- Freight Rate Quote
- Lane volumes and carrier bids
03
Solve the award
The OneShot agent uses its optimization tool to give each lane to one carrier at the lowest total cost, within each carrier’s stated capacity and the share rules. When the rules cannot all hold, it names the lanes and carriers in conflict instead of returning a plan.
- Solve
- Lane volumes and carrier bids
04
Get the award approved
Give the director of transportation procurement the plan, its cost against the expiring contracts and the lanes that change carrier. Run the variants the director asks for, such as a lower share cap, and record the approved award.
- Lane volumes and carrier bids
05
Carry out the award
Send each carrier its lanes, volumes and rates and confirm acceptance. Compare each carrier’s accepted loads with its award for the first eight weeks; a carrier that refuses volume sends its lanes to the next carrier on the approved plan.
- Email
- Email Inbox
- Lane volumes and carrier bids
- Shipment and billing records

What counts as complete

Every lane has an approved award its carrier has accepted, and the plan’s cost is recorded against the expiring contracts.

Decisions and exceptions

A bid far below the market benchmark goes to the director before it is awarded.
Rules that cannot all hold come back as named conflicts; the director decides which to relax.
The agent does not sign carrier contracts; procurement does.

What to measure

Cost per load against the expiring contracts
Loads refused by awarded carriers
On-time pickup by carrier
Lanes re-awarded after go-live

Establish the baseline and review period before launch. Compare completed cases, unresolved work and reviewer corrections against the same scope.

The agent’s tool basket

OneShot gives its agents the tools to analyze records, communicate, research and act on authorized business data. The platform carries the workflow from the first action through to the recorded result.

Shipment and billing records
Read shipment events, contracts and invoices; record approved disputes, credits and resolutions.
Lane volumes and carrier bids
Read each lane’s volume, service level, current carrier and rate; collect carrier bids per lane; record the approved award and each carrier’s acceptance.