Summary
The Hidden Lanes feature gives Shippers precise control over lane visibility during an RFP event, allowing you to hide specific lanes from selected participants.
Hidden Lanes eliminates the need to run multiple separate RFP events just to control which participants can see and bid on certain lanes. When you hide a lane from a participant, they cannot see it in the event, bid on it, or view it in downloaded templates.
How Hidden Lanes Helps You
Improve Bid Quality: Target your RFPs more effectively by limiting bidding to participants that are relevant and have a true chance of winning the business.
Enhance Optimization Accuracy: Hidden lanes ensure that optimization scenarios reflect only actionable lane responses from eligible participants.
Target Strategic Outcomes: Easily customize lane access based on criteria like region, lane type, incumbent/non-incumbent status, or asset/non-asset participants.
Common Use Cases
Hide lanes from participants tagged as "Low Quality"
Show lanes only to incumbent carriers (or hide from incumbents)
Hide drop lanes from non-asset carriers
Limit visibility based on carrier performance metrics
Full Truckload (FTL) and Intermodal events. Not currently available for Drayage events.
How to Access and Use Hidden Lanes
Important: Requirements for Hidden Lanes
To use Hidden Lanes, you must:
Create a new Lane Template, or duplicate an existing one
Use that new template for your events
Important: Hidden Lanes only works for new templates created on or after December 10, 2025 and any new events that use those new templates.
Once your new template is set up, you can start using Hidden Lanes to keep your events focused and easier for carriers to respond to.
If you need help updating your lane template or enabling the Hidden Lanes feature, contact the Emerge Support team.
Once enabled, You can control the visibility of lanes in two primary ways:
Method 1: Via UI Filters
Step 1. Access the Hidden Lanes Tool
Open your RFP event
Navigate to the Lanes tab
Click Hide Lanes
Step 2: Select Lanes to Hide
Filter and select which lanes should have visibility restrictions. Available filters include:
Lane incumbent status (Is/Is Not Incumbent)
Custom lane fields from your template
Origin and destination details
Equipment type
Mode type
Any other lane attributes
Step 3: Select Participants to Hide From
Choose which participants should not see the selected lanes:
SCAC Code: Hide specific carriers by their SCAC
Participant Name: Hide by company name
Partner Type: Hide Asset, Non-Asset, or Hybrid carriers
Tags: Hide carriers with specific tags (e.g., "Low Quality", "Reefer", "Incumbent")
Performance Metrics: Hide based on scorecard data like acceptance rate or on-time performance
Lane Incumbent Status: Hide current incumbents or non-incumbents
Step 4: Apply Your Settings
Review your lane and participant selections
Click Apply Lane Visibility Filter
Important Notes:
Applying visibility settings multiple times will add to (not replace) existing settings
Settings do not automatically update if you change lane or participant data later
To start fresh, use the Reset Hidden Lanes option
Updating Individual Lanes In-App:
Go to the Lanes tab
Click the three dots menu next to the lane
Select Edit Lane
Review the "Hide From SCACs" field to see and/or change which participants cannot see this lane
Method 2: Via Lane Bulk Upload
During RFP Event Creation
Step 1: Download Your Lane Template
During Step 5 of RFP Event Creation, download a lane template that includes the "Hide From SCACs" field.
Step 2: Fill Out the "Hide From SCACs" Column
Specify the SCACs of the participants who should NOT have access to each specific lane:
Individual SCACs: Enter SCAC codes separated by commas (e.g.,
ABCD, EFGH, IJKL)Emerge + All Premier Carriers: Enter
ERGNto hide the lane from Emerge brokerage and all Premier CarriersPremier Carriers Only: Enter
@PREMIER_CARRIERSto hide from all Premier Carriers (Emerge can still see)
Step 3: Upload Your Template
Upload your completed lane template as usual during event creation or via the Lanes tab.
Updating Lanes after Event Creation
Go to the Lanes tab
Click Upload Lanes
Upload Lanes with updated 'Hide from SCACs' values
For your latest lane template, click Download Lanes on the Lanes tab
View Hidden Lanes at Participant Level
Go to the Participants tab
Check the Visible Lanes column
Shows "X of Y" where X = lanes visible to that participant, Y = total lanes
You can also download the Participants template to view this data in Excel.
Unhide Lanes (Reset Hidden Lanes)
You can easily unhide all lanes from participants with a single button click.
Go to the Lanes tab
Find the Hidden Lanes card
Click Reset Hidden Lanes
Confirm the reset when prompted
Warning: This action removes all "Hide From SCACs" data from all lanes and cannot be undone.
Multi-Round Events: Reset Hidden Lanes Option
In Multi-Round events, you have the option to Reset Hidden Lanes at the start of a new round.
When creating Round 2 or Round 3:
Preserve Settings: The "Hide From SCACs" field will be copied to the new round along with all lane data, maintaining the same restrictions.
Reset Settings: Choose to reset visibility when creating the new round. This clears all "Hide From SCACs" data, making all lanes visible to all invited participants in the new round.
How Hidden Lanes Work for Participants
Before Bidding Opens (Published Status):
Participants cannot see any lanes yet, regardless of visibility settings
This gives you time to finalize visibility settings without causing confusion
Lanes become visible only when bidding opens
When Bidding Opens:
Participants see only lanes that are not hidden from them
Hidden lanes will not appear in:
The Lanes page in their portal
Downloaded lane response templates
Event statistics on their dashboard
After Bidding Closes:
If a participant submitted a bid before you hid a lane from them, the bid will remain in the system
These bids are automatically excluded from optimization
You cannot award these lanes unless you unhide them first
Optimization and Awards
How Hidden Lanes Affect Optimization
Lane Responses on hidden lanes are automatically excluded from Optimization calculations to enhance accuracy.
When you run optimization or create scenarios:
Lane responses from participants on lanes hidden from them are excluded
The optimization engine will not consider these bids when allocating lanes
This ensures awards are only made to participants who can see the lanes
Manual Awards and Uploads
If you try to award a lane to a participant that the lane is hidden from:
Via Manual Allocations Template or Event Results Template:
These templates include a "Lane Hidden From Participant" column showing "Yes" or "No"
If you attempt to upload awards where "Lane Hidden From Participant" = "Yes", you'll receive a validation error
Download the error file to see which awards were rejected
To fix: Reset visibility for those lanes (or unhide them individually), then re-upload your awards
Error message example: "You cannot award to participants on lanes that are hidden from them. Please reset visibility for this lane."
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Can I hide lanes from some participants but not others?
Yes, that's exactly what this feature is designed for. You can hide specific lanes from specific participants while keeping them visible to others.
How does hiding affect my optimization?
Lane Responses on hidden lanes are automatically excluded from Optimization calculations to enhance accuracy. This ensures optimization scenarios only include actionable bids from eligible participants.
What happens if a participant already bid on a lane that I later hide?
If a participant submitted a bid prior to the lane being hidden, the bid will remain in the system, but these bids will be excluded from optimization and cannot be awarded unless you unhide the lane first.
Can I unhide lanes during an event?
Yes, you can easily unhide all lanes from participants using the Reset Hidden Lanes button. You can also manually unhide specific lanes by editing the "Hide From SCACs" field for individual lanes.
What happens if I hide all lanes from a participant?
The participant will see empty state messages in their event view (no lanes available). Consider whether you still want them invited to the event in this case.
Can I use Hidden Lanes with Drayage events?
Not currently. The Hidden Lanes feature is only available for Full Truckload (FTL) and Intermodal events.
What if I need to change visibility for just a few lanes after applying bulk settings?
Use Edit Lane to manually adjust the "Hide From SCACs" field for individual lanes. You don't need to reset all visibility settings.
Can I export a report of which lanes are hidden from which participants?
Yes. Download the Lanes template from the Lanes tab. The "Hide From SCACs" column shows all hidden participants per lane. You can also download the Participants template to see lane visibility per participant.
Do visibility settings automatically update if I change participant data?
No. Visibility settings do not automatically update if you modify lane data or participant data after applying the settings. You must reapply visibility filters or manually edit lanes if you need changes.
Need Support?
If you encounter issues or need further assistance with the Hidden Lanes feature, feel free to chat with us by clicking the chat bubble on the bottom right of your screen