What is a load tender?

A shipper's offer of a load to a carrier, with its pickup, delivery, equipment and rate. Electronically it is usually an X12 204 message; the carrier then accepts or rejects it.

What does the tender rejection index measure?

The share of truckload freight that carriers reject out of a market. FreightWaves SONAR's Outbound Tender Rejection Index was 13.45% on 10 September 2026.

What happens when a carrier rejects a tender?

The shipper offers the load to the next carrier in its routing guide, usually at a higher rate. If every contracted carrier says no, the load goes to the spot market.

Term

Tender rejection

A tender rejection is a carrier turning down a load a shipper offers it, usually under a contract. The offer is the load tender — in EDI, an X12 204 message — and the carrier answers yes or no. FreightWaves' SONAR tracks the share rejected nationally: its Outbound Tender Rejection Index stood at 13.45% on 10 September 2026.

Also called load tender rejection, tender rejection rate, tender acceptance, load tender, OTRIApplies in USUpdated 13 October 2026

How a tender works

The shipper offers the load to the first carrier in its routing guide. X12's transaction set 204 exists for exactly this: to offer (tender) a shipment to a truckload carrier, with its schedule, equipment and commodities.
The carrier accepts or rejects it within the time the contract allows.
A rejected load goes to the next carrier in the guide, and the next.
If every contracted carrier rejects it, the load falls out of the contract and into the spot market.

The rejection rate as a market signal

SONAR's Outbound Tender Rejection Index gives the percentage of freight rejected out of a market. It held at 13.45% on 10 September 2026 and climbed to 14.32% in the days after Labor Day, FreightWaves reported. A rising index means contracted carriers are turning down more of the freight they agreed to haul.

Worked example: 1,000 tenders

1,000 tenders × 13.45% ≈ 135 rejected → each goes one step up the routing guide; any that every carrier rejects goes to the spot market

Routing guides are usually ordered from the cheapest carrier up, so, as SONAR puts it, each subsequent rejection sends the request to a more expensive carrier.

Who bears the cost

The shipper. A rejection costs the carrier nothing under most contracts, because, in DAT's words, contracts are binding on price, not capacity. The shipper pays the difference between the rate it agreed and the rate of whoever finally takes the load — and the time spent re-tendering it.

The mistake people make

Judging carriers on price alone. The carrier that won a lane at the lowest rate but rejects most of its tenders is not the cheapest one; track acceptance by carrier and lane, and give volume to the carriers that say yes.

FAQ