During the volatility of the past three years, significant changes have rocked the trucking industry. Shippers that had once largely avoided the spot market found themselves reliant on it, with outdated contract rates forcing higher tender rejections.
In order to secure capacity, shippers increasingly shortened their contract bid cycles from a yearly basis to a quarterly or even monthly one. Still, shifting market conditions made it harder than ever to stay on top of capacity and rates.
This instability drove widespread investments in freight procurement softwares that allow shippers to gain increased control and flexibility by conducting more frequent bids. Once labor-intensive and expensive, the request-for-proposal (RFP) process is now streamlined and virtually free, thanks to cutting-edge tools from companies such as Emerge. Shippers are taking notice of this shift, with many embracing shorter contract terms on their most-difficult-to-cover lanes.
FreightWaves partnered with Emerge to survey shippers on their preferred contract terms, current procurement processes and the challenges faced throughout bid season in order to understand how they are using (or neglecting) emergent software solutions.
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