Carrier guide
From signing up to being paid: how carriers and freight forwarders work on Ebbrate, step by step.
Create a carrier account
Sign up as a carrier with your work email and your company’s name, and confirm the address from the email we send. Invite colleagues from Team: each gets their own sign-in, and copies of the company’s emails.
Add the lanes you serve
A lane is an origin and a destination country with the modes you run on it: sea, air, road or rail. For each, say which cargo you take, and whether you offer duty paid delivery (DDP), delivery into Amazon fulfilment centres (FBA), full containers or special equipment.
You see auctions only on your lanes. DDP and FBA are checked by a person on each lane before you can bid on them; full containers and special equipment are your own statement, and your profile shows sellers how many container shipments you have delivered.
Get verified
Upload your company registration, your operating licence (FMC, MC/DOT or the equivalent for your lanes) and your cargo insurance certificate, with the amount and the date it runs to. A Chinese company also gives its name in Chinese and its Unified Social Credit Code, exactly as on the business licence.
A person checks them. You can see open auctions before you are verified, with countries only; once verified you see the pickup and delivery cities and can bid. Street addresses and contacts go to the carrier that wins. Your insurance must cover a shipment’s declared value for you to bid on it, and sea freight into the United States needs your FMC licence on file.
Verification lasts a year. We remind you before it or a document runs out, with what to upload.
Find shipments to bid on
Open auctions lists every shipment on your lanes, with filters for route, mode, Amazon and containers, and whether you can bid on it now. Choose the emails you want from Notifications: each new auction on your lanes, as it opens or in a digest.
Not your kind of shipment? Choose “Not for me” with a reason. It leaves your list, and the reasons tell us what to fix.
Bid
Split your bid by leg — origin, main freight, destination — with duty on its own line where the seller asks for duty paid, and say what is not included. Give your transit time honestly: you are measured against the far end of the range you give.
Each bid has to beat the standing best by the step shown. Ask the seller a question from the auction page if something is unclear: the answer goes to every carrier bidding. Your bids lists each auction once, with your place, how far you are from the lead and when it closes.
If the seller changes the details while bidding is open, you are emailed what changed. Your earlier bid stays on the board but cannot be accepted: bid again at what the new details cost, higher or lower.
When you win
You get the addresses and, as the seller hands them over, the contacts and documents. Make contact with the seller within 24 hours of the award: write on the shipment, or mark a call as made.
Report each step within 24 hours of it happening, add the container, bill of lading or air waybill numbers when you have them, and upload the documents that are yours to give by the dates shown. Your shipment card says what is waiting on you.
If the shipment is held up, pause it with the reason and the date it resumes. If a cost comes up you could not have priced, ask the seller for it with the figures: nothing is charged unless the seller accepts.
Get paid
Your payout is the accepted bid plus any charges the seller accepted, less the commission on the service part, never on duty. It is released after delivery once the seller’s claim window has closed. Earnings shows each shipment with what is held back and the date it is due.
If the seller files a claim, answer it from Claims with your side and your documents. An unanswered claim is decided in the seller’s favour.
Build your score
Your score opens tiers — duty paid, Amazon — and lowers your commission. It moves on on-time deliveries, reports made on time, complete documents, quick replies, first contact made in time and the ratings sellers give. The score page lists every event that moved it and what the next tier needs.
The rules behind each step — deadlines, charges, cancellations, claims, the commission and the score — are in the marketplace rules. Questions are answered in Help.