How Orbit Marketplace distributes Tours to Carriers via auctions and instant offers, plus how to read an offer's dispatch state (open, won, declined, revoked, expired).
Orbit Marketplace is a powerful platform feature that enables both automated and manual distribution of Tours to Carriers, matching the right Carrier at the right price. It serves as a central hub for managing transport opportunities through competitive auctions and fixed-price instant offers, providing operators with flexible tools to efficiently match Carriers with Tours.
Key Highlights
Dual Distribution Methods: Choose between competitive auctions or fixed-price instant offers
Automated Sequences: Create sophisticated distribution workflows combining Carrier selection, scoring, and offer management
Real-time Notifications: Keep all participants informed through multiple communication channels
Fine-grained Access Control: Manage marketplace operations through detailed permission settings
When a carrier bids in Orbit Cockpit, they can choose how long that bid remains binding. They can use the auction end, an available preset, or a custom date and time. Orbit only offers deadlines that meet the marketplace minimum and, for an auction with an end time, do not pass that end.
A carrier with an active standing bid can update its binding deadline without changing the bid amount. When the deadline passes before the auction ends, that bid no longer participates in the auction.
Sequences automate the entire matching process between Tours and Carriers in Orbit Marketplace. When set up carefully and tailored to specific cases, Sequences enable you to fully automate large parts of your Carrier-side operations. Every Sequence consists of three SequenceBricks. Each SequenceBrick can be managed individually and used in more than one Sequence, enabling you to re-use logic and procedures.
There are three types of SequenceBricks: Select, Score and Distribute. In a Sequence, they are executed in this order. First, a given number of Carriers are selected. Next, they are individually assigned a score. Finally, in the Distribution SequenceBrick, previously selected and scored Carriers are sent individual offers or are invited to competitive auctions using a user-defined workflow: a combination of Wait Steps and Actions.
Select SequenceBricks
The Select SequenceBrick allows Operators to create rules for choosing which Carriers will be processed by the sequence. You can apply multiple selection rules in combination. Select Rules considers all carriers present in the system at the time of execution.
Carriers can be filtered based on the following criteria:
Carrier
Carrier Creation date
Carrier Name
Carrier Contact name
Carrier E-mail
Carrier Phone
Carrier Country
Carrier City
Carrier Postal Code
Carrier Region
Carrier Properties
Carrier’s Vehicles
Has Vehicle Where Extras: at least one vehicle satisfies the vehicle extras the tour requires (yes or no)
Has Vehicle Where Property: at least one vehicle has the given property value
Has Vehicle Where Height: at least one vehicle's height passes the comparison with the tour's maximum load height
Has Vehicle Where Payload Capacity: at least one vehicle's payload capacity passes the comparison with the sum of the tour's load weights
Has Vehicle Where Total Weight: at least one vehicle's total weight passes the comparison with the sum of the tour's load weights
Has Vehicle Where Fits Loads: at least one vehicle can fit the tour's loads (yes or no)
Has Vehicle Where Weight Utilization Below: the carrier's best-fitting vehicle would use less than the given percentage of its weight capacity for the tour's loads
Has Vehicle Where Volume Utilization Below: the same for volume
Has Vehicle Where Ldm Utilization Below: the same for loading metres
Carrier’s Users
Has User Where Extras: at least one user satisfies the carrier user extras the tour requires (yes or no)
The above filters can be set relative to either fixed values or dynamically using characteristics of the Tour in question like:
Number of stops
Maximum weight
Tour price
Vehicle class requirements
Start date and time
Region
Score SequenceBricks
The Score Brick makes use of the same rules accessible by the Select SequenceBrick, but extends them with the option to either add or subtract a score to the carrier. This will help us to choose the carriers for a given step of the Distribute Brick according to their scoring.
Distribute SequenceBricks
The Distribute SequenceBrick is the workflow that sends the offers. It works through the scored carrier list in a chain of Wait Steps and Actions, each Action sending an instant offer or opening an auction for a slice of that list. The two step types are described below.
In the Distribute Brick you add a Wait Step (Add Wait Step) or an Action (Add Action).
A Wait Step sets a time the sequence waits, which is useful before or between Actions. The wait time can be set with either:
absolute (a set number of seconds/minutes/hours/days)
relative (a percentage of the time until the tour starts; you can also set a minimum and a maximum duration to limit the range)
An Action consists of two parts, the carrier selection and the actual action to be executed.
The Carrier selection uses the previously created scored list of carriers and can be done in one of three ways:
absolute (setting a range of absolute values, for example 1. (highest scored) - 10. of the scored carriers list)
percentage (setting a range in percent, for example the top 10% of the list)
points (setting a range in points, for example between 500 and 1000 points)
The setup for the execution of the action follows a similar pattern as the configuration of the Auction or Instant Offer in the Marketplace itself, here we set:
Instant Offer or Auction
Visible or Secret Auction
Price (initial price or suggested price)
an optional auction end
similar to the Wait Step described above, we can set absolute values, or values relative to the start of the tour, this will be evaluated when the sequence is executed.
These settings allow for flexible design of the Distribute Brick of your sequence to:
Define distribution patterns and timing
Configure waiting periods between distribution phases
Set carrier group sizes for offers
Sequence Pattern Example:
1. Select top-scored (for example top 10%) carriers2. Create auction for selected group3. Wait for specified duration4. If no acceptance, create instant offers at adjusted price5. Distribute to remaining eligible carriers
The Marketplace is the carrier-facing view, inside Orbit Connect, of the offers you have sent. Each offer for a Tour is a Callout, and carriers browse them through a set of tabs that are simply filtered lenses on the same offers:
Available: open offers a carrier can act on right now.
Requested: offers sent to the carrier and awaiting their response.
Bid Received: auctions the carrier has placed a bid on.
In Sequence: offers currently being handled by an automated sequence.
Declined, Won, Expired and Revoked: offers that have reached an outcome.
A carrier only ever sees its own offer and its own rate, never the underlying order or the customer's pricing.
An individual offer moves through a small set of states. In plain terms:
Open: the offer is live and waiting for the carrier to respond.
Won: this carrier got the tour, by accepting an instant offer or winning an auction.
Declined: the carrier said no.
Revoked: you, the operator, pulled the offer back.
Expired: the offer lapsed: either its time ran out, or another carrier won and the remaining offers were closed out.
These outcomes are not interchangeable, and the difference matters when you review why a tour did or did not find a carrier. Only Declined reflects a carrier's own decision. Revoked is your own action, and Expired simply means the offer timed out or was closed because someone else won. Neither is a rejection by the carrier.
Assignment itself is nothing more than the outcome of a won offer. You do not set a tour's carrier by hand while offers are running; when an offer is won, the tour is assigned to that carrier automatically. Until then the tour stays unassigned while its offers are live. A tour with an open offer is mid-dispatch, not overlooked.
Pronto Pizza, a chain with 25 locations across Madrid, uses Orbit Marketplace to manage their delivery operations efficiently during peak hours.
Scenario: During weekends, Pronto Pizza experiences high order volumes across all locations. They need to quickly dispatch drivers for time-sensitive deliveries while maintaining cost efficiency.
Marketplace Implementation:
Sequence Setup
Select Brick:
Carrier City: Madrid (where restaurant locations are)
Carrier Postal Code: Specific codes matching restaurant delivery zones
Carrier Properties: Has "Food Delivery" and "Thermal Bag" properties
Score Brick:
+100 points for carriers with "Premium Thermal Equipment" property
+200 points for carriers with "High Rating" property
+150 points for carriers with "Consistent Delivery" property
-50 points for carriers with "Recent Delay" property
Distribution Workflow
When a new batch of pizza orders is ready, the system creates an instant offer for the top 10% scored carriers
Offers expire after 120 seconds
If no acceptance, the system creates a visible auction for the next 30% of carriers
Auction runs for 180 seconds with the initial rate visible
Results:
94% of deliveries are assigned within 3 minutes
Customer satisfaction increased due to faster delivery times
Delivery costs decreased by 12% through competitive bidding during non-peak hours
Orion Logistics, based in Singapore, manages container shipments between major ports in Asia and Europe. They use Orbit Marketplace to coordinate with trucking providers for final-mile deliveries.
Scenario: When cargo vessels arrive at the Port of Rotterdam, Orion needs to arrange transportation to distribution centers across Western Europe, with varying urgency and price sensitivity.
Marketplace Implementation:
Tiered Distribution Strategy
High-Priority Shipments: Instant offers to premium carriers with temperature-controlled vehicles
Standard Shipments: Secret auctions to qualified carriers
Bulk Shipments: Visible auctions to maximize cost efficiency
Automated Sequence for Standard Container Delivery
Select Brick: Filters for carriers with:
Appropriate vehicle class for container transport
Valid certifications for cross-border transport
Operations in destination country using Orbit’s Region feature
Score Brick:
+300 points for carriers with previous on-time delivery record
+200 points for carriers with specific equipment (container locks, tracking)
+100 points for carriers with multilingual drivers
Weighted scoring based on distance from port (closer carriers score higher)
Distribute Brick:
First action: Instant offers to top 5% of carriers with 2-hour expiration
Wait step: 2 hours
Second action: Secret auction to next 15% of carriers with 8-hour duration
Third action: Visible auction to all remaining qualified carriers
Results:
78% reduction in dock waiting time
Improved carrier relationships through fair opportunity distribution
15% cost savings on non-urgent shipments through competitive bidding
Enhanced visibility of transport options for operations team
The auction can be manually ended by the operator, or it will automatically end at its configured end time if one was set. The tour can then be redistributed through a new auction, instant offer or direct assign to carrier.
Can I modify an active auction?
Active auctions cannot be modified, but they can be ended manually if needed and a new distribution can be started.
How do carriers get notified of new opportunities?
Carriers receive notifications through their configured channels (email, push, in-app). They can manage their notification preferences in their account settings.
What happens if multiple carriers accept an instant offer simultaneously?
The system processes acceptances in order of receipt. Once an offer is accepted, it is automatically withdrawn from other carriers.
Can I combine different distribution methods?
Yes, through sequences you can create sophisticated distribution strategies combining both auctions and instant offers with conditional logic and timing rules.
