Want a chance to name your own price? If your company wins an Amazon Relay freight auction, you’ll get 3-6 months of one-way contract work — a great option for finding backhauls. Our open auctions give you full visibility into the leading bid, so you’ll always know where you stand on the contract you want.
Here’s how your company can place a freight bid on dedicated, one-way lanes with the date range and region that fit your needs.
Freight bidding requirements
Requirements may vary by contract (e.g. number of trailers, required drivers, etc.), but these are the minimum to-dos to access Amazon’s freight auctions.
- Once onboarded to Relay, take the 15-minute auctions training in the carrier portal.
- Relay carriers receive a performance score that determines when and how many loads they can book. To view and place bids on auctions, maintain a performance grade of C+ or above (B for reefer loads and B+ for some box truck loads).
- Establish a trailer pool. You should provide 1.5x trailers for the number of daily routes on a single contract day. For example, if you’re bidding on a contract that requires 2 trailers every day, you’ll need to have at least 3 on-site at your origin destination. All trailers used should be properly maintained and serviced according to industry standards and applicable regulations. They must be dropped 24 hours in advance of their scheduled pick-up time.
Types of freight auctions
While Relay’s load board offers schedule flexibility, our auctions let you book steady one-way routes. Here’s what we have available for bid.
- 53' trailer power-only auctions: Your company must have at least one day cab/sleeper cab.
- 53' trailer required auctions: Your company must have at least one trailer.
- Box trucks auctions: You must have at least one 26’ or 27’ reefer box truck.
- Reefer auctions: Trailer-required contracts for Amazon’s grocery loads, requiring at least one 53’ or 48' reefer truck.
- Hostler & shuttling auctions: Short, power-only hauls repositioning trailers around Amazon’s yards or distributing them among yards and facilities.
For domicile-based auctions, you’ll be tendered lanes between a starting and ending domicile (greater city area). If the lane is cancelled, we may be able to swap it with other lanes that are between the two domiciles.
How to bid on freight contracts
- While you can use filters to narrow down lanes, viewing all available freight auctions helps you find the best fit for your company.
- You’ll only bid your standard base rate. Accessorials (fuel and tolls) are paid after the load is complete — you won’t include them in your bids.
- You’ll bid the entire load volume for the lane. For example, if you bid 49 weekly loads, you’ll need to haul all of them. Don’t overbid or commit to more volume than you can cover — it may result in contract termination or suspension from future auctions.
How to save time on freight auctions
- Bulk bidding: Instead of entering bids one by one, we created bulk bidding. Just add your filters to your contract search, download the spreadsheet of preferred contracts, and easily enter all your freight bids at once. Then upload it back to Relay. That’s it.
- Automated bidding: You don’t have to constantly monitor your bids to make sure you’re not getting outbid. Set your minimum bid, and our system will automatically bid to that threshold on your behalf. That means more time to find spot loads that fill schedules, or contracts that keep trucks moving. Put your business front and center while our tech works in the background.
Freight bidding process
Once you place a bid, you’ll see additional auction details, such as the leading bid price, the number of bids in the lead, and how your bid compares to the leading bid.
- Leading bid: If you have the leading freight bid at the close of the auction, your company is awarded the lane. If there are two matching bids, performance score will determine which company wins.
- Editing bids: If you don’t have the leading bid, you can increase your price or withdraw from the auction. By withdrawing, you won’t be able to participate in or view updates on that auction. You can only withdraw from an auction once.
- Winning auctions: You’ll receive an email notification to accept or reject a contract won in an auction. Once you accept, weekly loads are tendered for your contract’s duration. If you reject awarded contracts too often, we may remove your auctions access.
Sign up to bid on freight contracts
Contracts = stability. To take advantage of Amazon’s one-way freight contracts for bid, check out Relay’s carrier requirements to make sure we’re the right fit for your business. Then, you can start your sign-up on desktop or the Relay app on iOS or Android.
Disclaimer: Amazon does not tender loads through any third-party load boards. Any Amazon loads posted on third-party load boards will only be tendered directly to approved and onboarded carriers via the Relay web portal or Relay mobile app. If you are interested in hauling loads for Amazon, sign up and book directly on relay.amazon.com. For more about our efforts against fraud and cargo theft, see our trustworthy transportation page.
