Step 1
Free to get started
Freemium account with no upfront commitment. Launch your first tender today and see results in days, not months.
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PURCHASE & TENDER MANAGEMENT
Tender your rail freight digitally. Free to start.
Compare offers in one place. Reach the entire rail market in a single click. 350+ railway undertakings and forwarders across 27 countries — all on one platform. The first marketplace built for rail freight tendering, now free to try.
Trusted by 350 companies across European rail freight
START PROCUREMENT
From spot requests to yearly tenders within one platform.
Whatever you need to source, a single train short-term or 200 lanes for next year, PTM gives you the right workflow, the right providers, and the right comparable view.
Spot Request
Short-term, 1 to 2 lanes. Find new partners. Send one request to every relevant provider in a single click. Receive comparable offers within hours. Award the best, archive the rest. From request to award, same day and same screen. Free to start.
Regular Tender
Yearly tender with up to hundreds lanes. Excel-Upload, Standard templates with rail-freight specifics built in. Send to your provider shortlist or to the entire market simultaneously. Deadline management, automated reminders, structured comparison per lane. Awarding per lane, with audit trail for compliance.
Sub-Tender
For providers who receive a request they can't fulfil alone. Break the complex transport into sub-tenders, send each segment to all suitable providers, compare offers per segment, and award the right partner per leg. Built for rail forwarders running complex multi-leg flows.
HOW IT WORKS
From spot requests to yearly tenders within one platform.
Whatever you need to source: a single train short-term or 200 lanes for next year, PTM gives you the right workflow, the right providers, and the right comparable view.
Order-to-cash process timeline
Step 2
Access 350+ providers
Rail traction companies, carriers, and wagon rental companies across 27 countries - all reachable through one platform.
Step 3
Structured tendering
Standardized RFQ creation with mandatory fields, validations, and guided offer templates. No more inconsistent email formats.
Step 4
Award to execution
Awarded bids convert seamlessly into operational and financial master data. No manual handover needed.
Step 5
A lean process for a complex market
One structured, auditable workflow for requesting and creating offers with the full decision trail for compliance all in one place.
PURCHASE & TENDER MANAGEMENT
The digital platform for rail transport tendering.
PTM replaces email-based RFQs with a structured digital marketplace. Requesters publish tenders, providers submit standardized offers, and the entire process - from first request to contract award - happens in one place.
For Shippers & Requesters
Create structured transport requests, reach 500+ providers you may not know yet, compare offers side by side on price, duration, and emissions, and award contracts digitally.
For Railway Undertakings & Carriers
Receive standardized tender requests, respond with guided offer templates, track deadlines and communications centrally, and build a digital track record of performance.
For Rail Forwarders
Manage both sides - source traction capacity from RUs while responding to tenders from your own shipper customers. One platform for your full procurement and sales process.
PRICE PLAN
Everything in Free, plus:
Get started with PTM today — no contract, no credit card. Upgrade when you need advanced features, custom integrations, or dedicated account support.
Free plan
- Self-registration in minutes
- Send unlimited requests
- Receive comparable offers from a pool of 350+ providers
- Standard tender templates with rail-freight specifics
- Full request history and audit trail
- Custom workflows, approval rules and custom template
Premium Plan
- Provider selection for closed requests
- Use Blacklists and Favorites
- Dedicated customer success manager
- Send requests with your branding
- NDA and sealed bid
- Unlimited number of usage
KEY FEATURES
Explore the core capabilities of Purchase & Tender Management
Three feature areas anchor everything PTM does for rail freight procurement. Click through to see each in detail.
Send to the Whole Market in One Click
Reach every relevant railway undertaking and forwarder, along with new partners still unknown to you today, all with a single click. No more emails, phone calls, or provider research. Filter by operating region, transport type, dangerous goods capability, and certifications. The PTM provider directory covers 350+ companies across 27 countries, with company profiles, contact persons, network lanes, and 5-star response ratings.
Standardised Comparable Offers
Standard tender templates with rail-freight specifics built in. Every provider responds in the same structured format — currency, price model, services, supplementary charges, validity. Overview of deviations compared to the original request. Side-by-side comparison per lane, per provider, with automated notifications when new offersarrive. Award the best, send standard rejection responses to the rest, archive everything with full audit trail.
Compliance & Audit Trail
All processes and agreements documented in an audit-proof manner. Full request, offer, and award history downloadable as PDF. Role-based access for procurement, legal, and management. Compliance built in — you don't have to build it on top. NDA and closed bid function are available within the premium account.
MORE FEATURES
Everything else PTM handles.
Beyond market reach, comparable offers, and audit trail, PTM covers every workflow rail freight procurement teams deal with day to day.
Self-Registration
Sign up in minutes — no sales call required. Approve via email, send your first request the same day. Free for both requesters and providers.
Provider Company App
Present yourself to the market with a full company profile — contact persons, core values, network lanes, certifications. Be discovered by the shippers who need you.
Operating Region Filter
Filter providers by operating region down to country and state level. Reach providers who actually run the corridor you need.
5-Star Response Rating
See which providers respond best. The 5-star rating system tracks response behaviour across the marketplace.
Team Collaboration
Forward incoming requests to colleagues without giving them separate platform access. Collaborate on feasibility checks and offer creation with shared notes.
Mobile Access
Manage requests on the go. PTM mobile launches Q3 2026. Sign up for the launch cohort and shape the product.
PURCHASE & TENDER MANAGEMENT
Start free. Send your first request today.
Self-registration in minutes. 350+ providers reachable in one click. No contract, no credit card.
Customer Stories
How rail freight teams tender with Rail-Flow
From an industrial shipperdigitisinga wagon fleet to a wagon lessor managing thousands of assets: three fleet profiles, three deployments, on the same platform.
Railway Operator
Running Offer Management & Transport execution for European Vision Rail
Captrain runs six legal entities across European rail freight markets. Before Rail-Flow: each entity managed sales separately, scattered information, inconsistent offer templates, through put times that stretched across weeks, and management with no view of the pipeline across the group. With Rail-Flow Offer Management and CRM: one sales architecture, six brands, one shared customer database underneath. Pipeline visibility from inquiry to award across every entity, and standardised offer documents that reflect the right brand, the right contract terms, every time.
Products used: ROM, PTM
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DISCOVER PURCHASE & TENDER MANAGEMENT
Ready to try PTM?
Talk to our team.
Saskia Misselhorn
Growth Manager
+49 1709 728 647
s.misselhorn@rail-flow.com
Frequently asked questions
What we hear most often during PTM evaluation. Anything missing? Try the free plan and ask your first request. Answers come faster that way.
Have a question that's not covered here? Reach out and we'll get back to you within one business day.
Is PTM really free?
Yes. The Free plan lets you self-register, send unlimited spot requests, receive comparable offers from 300+ providers, and access standard tender templates with rail-freight specifics. No contract, no credit card. Upgrade to Premium when you need additional features, custom workflows, or integrations.
How do I sign up?
Click "Try for free" and complete the self-registration form. We review new accounts to keep the marketplace high-quality — approval typically within one business day. Once approved, you can send your first request immediately to every relevant provider on the platform.
Can we request a signed NDA?
Yes. We offer an NDA function, so only providers who confirm it gain access to the detailed information (lanes).
Can I see the certificates of the potential providers?
Yes. Every provider profile shows the certificates already set up, and you can request additional certificates within the tender if needed.
What type of requests can I tender?
You can tender single wagon loads and block trains, whether intermodal or conventional, from a single wagon up to hundreds of lanes.
MORE PRODUCTS
Explore the rest of the platform.
Purchase & Tender Management is one part of the platform. These products connect seamlessly to extend your operational coverage.
Offer Management and CRM (ROM)
Providers respond to PTM tenders directly in ROM. Manage your sales pipeline, build offers with rail-specific Calculator 2.0, and connect buy side to sell side.
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Transport Management (TMS)
Won tenders flow into the TMS for execution. Plan, dispatch, track, and invoice every transport, connected to the offer that won it.
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Other Marketplace Products
Check our Marketplace family for free with RSB (Resource Sharing Broker) and ICB (Intermodal Capacity Broker) for wagon hire and intermodal slots.