The landscape of purchasing freight transportation has changed dramatically lately. Have your supply chain processes kept pace maximizing service and minimizing your costs? Key elements of change are capacity, technology and leverage.
Capacity - Other than rail, there is abundant freight transportation small package, less than truckload and truckload capacity, when managed properly. The asset providers will tell you otherwise as in their respective niches, sellers may be constrained but buyers definitely are not. The only way for purchasers of freight transportation to manage this highly fragmented market is to leverage new technologies for optimal services and cost effectiveness.
Technology - Who can afford buying the software to manage provider choices and audit all freight bills?...fortunately in today's competitive market, you do not have to because new highly focused third party providers have the latest that is scalable to your unique needs and they absorb the cost. Clients can not afford nor should they eat the ongoing costs of good software and inevitable enhancements/upgrades needed to reflect the marketplace changes in provider reach.
Leverage - Only the largest of freight transportation businesses have the leverage to create supply chain efficiencies on their own and most of these usually leave money and value on the table with current transportation providers. There simply are too many asset choices, much less access to their respective lanes of need and capability, that buyers can leverage on their own for service and freight transportation cost efficiencies.
Today's transportation management companies are value driven and can absolutely drive your supply chain transportation costs down and deliverable values up. The old approaches do not really work anymore, whether formal bids, online bids, renegotiations, associations, base tariffs, dot coms, brokers, non focused third party logistic companies and others as they all put the buyer at a disadvantage with their limited reach and spend.