What companies should consider when purchasing freight via e-procurement

When it comes to transport purchasing or freight procurement, it is important for companies to get an overview of which logistics partners they want to work with in the short and long term. Criteria are set, such as the size and type of service that the logistics partners have to fulfill. To do this, companies should decide how important certain aspects such as transport quality and transport costs are to them. The transport quality in particular is often an underestimated point, since it must be ensured during handling that there is also available cargo space at the offered price. Based on the specific criteria, shippers and importers can then align their freight purchases using the e-procurement system and assign transports.

Smaller senders and importers have a low transport volume. Often these companies also buy or sell their products including transport services so that they do not have to do the freight shopping themselves. If you carry out the process of transport procurement yourself, it is usually quite manageable due to the low volume. The transports are then carried out with a few or even only a single logistics partner.

Medium-sized companies usually need to buy their own freight due to the significantly higher volume of shipments. The shipment volume of these companies is often concentrated on several locations or relations. For regular sales, price validity periods from one quarter to one or two years are agreed. For special transports or less frequently used routes, daily price inquiries or spot inquiries are made to the logistics partners with which the companies work. Basically, companies organize their transport procurement in such a way that they work with a few logistics partners. It does not matter whether the terms are longer or ad hoc inquiries. With constant conditions in the transport procurement and without operational irregularities, the cooperation is usually permanent.

Larger companies and corporations have an even greater volume of transport, which is spread across various locations, customers and suppliers. In addition, the amount of transport costs is a more significant cost block, which is the focus. As a result, these companies organize their transport purchasing or freight procurement somewhat differently and, even more so than smaller companies, use benchmarks and transport tenders. The entire process of freight purchasing or freight procurement is usually carried out by our own departments or teams. As a result, their requirements for e-procurement systems are different than those of small and medium-sized companies.

Regardless of their size, it is important for companies not to be dependent on individual logistics partners. Even smaller companies that carry out their transports with a partner usually keep in contact with several logistics service providers. In medium-sized companies and corporations, you usually fall back on a larger pool of logistics service providers. These companies have to make sure that their transports are handled reliably when purchasing or purchasing freight. For this reason, several logistics service providers are always used at the same time in order to be able to handle the transport volume in the event of loading problems differently at short notice. With their systems, e-procurement providers help companies to maintain an overview and full control over the procurement of transport.

In the field of transport procurement, companies are now increasingly using e-procurement systems and e-procurement providers. Manual processes using e-mail and Excel are too time-consuming and prone to errors, especially when purchasing freight. However, tendering tools only cover part of freight procurement. Platforms and digital freight forwarders offer technically good solutions, but they are also just one logistics service provider among many. However, if companies have to register on several portals, this is inefficient and does not offer a decisive advantage over existing processes.