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Transportation and logistics procurement is about more than securing competitive rates. With a smart procurement strategy, companies keep freight moving across complex supply chains while running efficient logistics operations, maintaining service levels, and controlling costs.
In this video, e2open logistics experts share how Logistics as a Service (LaaS) team helped a global manufacturer strengthen its transportation procurement approach, improving operational efficiency and uncovering meaningful cost-saving opportunities.
Hear how the team approached carrier selection, adapted an established transportation procurement strategy for operations in Mexico, and collaborated with the transportation team to make decisions that balance cost, service, and operational realities.
How Logistics as a Service connects transportation procurement to execution
Logistics as a Service combines transportation technology with a dedicated team of logistics professionals who work alongside customers to put strategy into practice. LaaS transportation procurement services help customers make more informed freight sourcing decisions while retaining control of their carrier relationships and logistics strategy.
For this manufacturer, the LaaS team supports their transportation procurement while contributing to planning, carrier management, and collaborating with their team on upstream decisions that can help improve logistics operations and service performance. In Mexico, the LaaS team implemented appointment scheduling and captured gate-in and gate-out times to help evaluate detention claims, improve transparency, and identify additional opportunities for savings.
This is the practical difference between buying software and engaging managed transportation services: the strategy and the execution stay in the same hands.
By connecting procurement strategies with operational expertise and transportation data, organizations can make more informed decisions, improve visibility, and pursue savings that can be realized in day-to-day operations.
Why transportation procurement has to work beyond the spreadsheet
Large transportation networks rarely stand still. Production shifts between facilities, carrier capabilities vary by market, and expansion into new regions can introduce different operating requirements.
That means a transportation procurement strategy built only around projected rates and savings may not be enough. Transportation teams also need to understand which carriers can reliably support the business, how awards will perform operationally, and what changes upstream could affect execution downstream.
A stronger approach connects procurement decisions with day-to-day transportation realities: the routing guides, tender behavior, and lane-level capacity that determine whether awarded bids can be executed successfully.
Why carrier performance matters in transportation procurement
Effective transportation procurement starts with choosing carriers that are right for the network, not simply identifying the lowest available rate.
By considering factors such as tender acceptance, service performance, operating capabilities, and regional requirements, teams can make carrier awards with a clearer understanding of how those decisions are likely to perform in practice. Over time, that performance history becomes the backbone of a carrier procurement strategy; a repeatable basis for deciding who earns primary status on a lane and who does not.
For one large manufacturer, that approach also meant working with managed transportation services team to adapt an established North American procurement strategy for operations in Mexico, where carrier capabilities and requirements differed. The result was a more informed approach to carrier selection supported by better visibility into rates, routing guides, and transportation activity.
Key insights from the video
Carrier selection based on tender acceptance and service history, not rate alone
What happens when an established transportation procurement strategy is adapted from one operating region to another
How appointment scheduling and tracking gate-in/gate-out times help evaluate detention claims
Where procurement decisions intersect with planning, warehousing, and carrier management
How to keep a bid result executable after the routing guide goes live
Watch the video to see how e2open Logistics as a Service helps connect transportation procurement strategy with day-to-day execution.
Frequently asked questions
What is a transportation procurement strategy?
A transportation procurement strategy defines how an organization sources, evaluates, and awards freight to carriers across its network. A strong strategy weighs rates alongside carrier performance, capacity, service requirements, operating regions, and whether an award can be executed reliably once the bid closes.
Carrier capabilities, service history, operating regions, and tender acceptance all help determine whether an award will succeed in practice.
What should a transportation procurement strategy include?
A transportation procurement strategy should cover how carriers are sourced and evaluated, how awards are made and published to the routing guide, and how performance is measured after the bid closes. Alongside rates, a strong logistics procurement strategy accounts for carrier performance, capacity, service requirements, operating regions, and the ability to execute reliably.
How can carrier performance improve transportation procurement?
Historical carrier performance can help transportation teams make more informed sourcing and award decisions. Measures such as contract tender acceptance and primary tender acceptance can indicate which carriers have demonstrated the ability and willingness to support the network consistently.
How does Logistics as a Service support transportation procurement?
Logistics as a Service combines transportation management technology with logistics expertise. This managed transportation services team can work with customers on areas such as procurement strategy, carrier selection, rate and routing guide management, planning, appointment scheduling, and ongoing transportation operations.
How can transportation procurement help reduce logistics costs?
Transportation procurement can uncover savings by improving carrier selection and aligning rates, capacity, and service requirements with the needs of the network. Connecting procurement decisions with operational data can also help identify costs such as accessorial charges and detention fees and improve how transportation resources are managed.
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