Shipping Tenders and Contracts

Shipping and freight procurement covers moving goods rather than mail or parcels: freight forwarding, maritime and ferry services, cargo handling, and the shipping side of import and export logistics.

Stotles brings together shipping and freight tenders and contracts from 100+ portals into one search, so you do not have to check each portal separately, and you can set alerts for new opportunities across the UK and Ireland.

If you want to search the government portals directly, Find a Tender carries higher-value contracts across the UK and Contracts Finder carries lower-value contracts in England. Public Contracts Scotland, Sell2Wales and eTendersNI cover Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, Ireland's eTenders covers Irish public bodies, and many councils, NHS bodies and housing associations publish on their own e-tendering portals such as ProContract. Freight forwarding is often let as framework agreements split by region, and ferry and timber shipping routes as multi-year public service contracts, some of them subsidised.

Freight forwarders handling customs need the right customs authorisations, and ferry operators must hold Maritime and Coastguard Agency certification for their vessels. Tenders usually set minimum insurance cover, check financial standing and ask for evidence of similar contracts at selection stage. Under the Procurement Act 2023, suppliers can be excluded for certain criminal convictions, insolvency or failure to pay tax.

Often. National freight and logistics framework agreements sit alongside individual ferry, port and freight contracts from councils, defence and government departments.

Freight is often let as framework agreements split by region, as with the diplomatic freight lots, and ferry routes as multi-year service contracts, some subsidised. Buyers include central government departments, island and coastal councils, publicly owned ferry operators and port authorities, and universities and research bodies shipping laboratory goods.

Read ferry service strategies, island transport plans, freight and logistics framework renewal dates and subsidy scheme reviews, which show shipping and freight work coming due ahead of a notice. On Stotles you can track those signals and the buyers behind them, then follow a notice from pre-tender through to award.

Shipping notices carry 63521000 (Freight transport agency services) and 60600000 (Water transport services).