Inland Freight | Market, Trends, Growth | Suppliers Analysis

Strategic Sourcing Guide to Inland Freight Procurement

Overview

A changing ecosystem within the Transport market also affects the procurement process, cost dynamics and supplier attractiveness for the buyers of Inland Freight. Sustainability has emerged as a pivotal theme for procurement decisions related to supply chain. Companies are expecting their suppliers to internalize globally accepted sustainability practices and demonstrate a solid history of putting in practice similar principles. It is worth noting that practices of sustainability are not limited to only environmental impact but has taken a greater meaning of practices that can reduce the overall cost of operations in the long term.

Cyber security has emerged as a top priority within logistics and supply chain ecosystems. New accountability standards are emerging for the way suppliers and buyers collaborate and protect sensitive information and assets.

Rise in minimum labor wages across countries such as the US and China will result in increased employee expenses for Inland Freight suppliers who will be forced to pass on a part of this increase to their buyers.

Inland Freight Procurement Best Practices

It has become imperative for category managers to remain as agile as possible in terms of their procurement practices. However, it is not always easy to quickly spot and implement alternative practices in a category like Inland Freight. To help quick decision making, this report advises on several procurement best practices that have worked well for category managers.

For example, Buyers should assess service providers' capability of predicting the weather, traffic, and other real-time information, which might affect shipments that are in transit or in its delivery times.

Buyers should enter in long-term partnerships and collaborative relationships with service providers to benefit from economies of scale and reduced cost. Long-term contracts are established to avoid renewal costs and avoid time spent on renegotiation.

Buyers should negotiate for administrative control over all technological systems that contain critical data. This will ensure 100% transparency and visibility over logistics operations. In addition, buyers should demand visibility across the entire supply chain using real-time metrics such as mobile and telematics systems.

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Risks in Inland Freight procurement

Inland Freight procurement managers also need to proactively identify and mitigate potential risks that can arise in the supply chain or contracts for Inland Freight procurement. Some examples include:

When requirements of the buyers are not absolutely clear or usage patterns are not stable or predictable, suppliers often build in \"cost buffers\" for unforeseen risks due to a lack of complete understanding on buyer's requirements. This increases the risk of overspending on Inland Freight
The category is highly impacted by the global economic factors. Economic downturn and political upheaval, particularly in major international markets such as the US and China, results in huge uncertainties. Uncertainty in customer demand owing to changes in freight and shipping market from general economic fluctuations and decline in international freight demand negatively impact the category
Factors such as hurricanes, tornadoes, terrorist acts, diseases, and earthquakes quickly hamper the operations within the category. Such risks are unforeseeable and disrupt the whole supply chain leading to significant losses to both the buyers and suppliers

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Who should read this report

The report is intended to serve as a one-stop reference guide for Inland Freight procurement strategy and offers a perfect blend of category basics with deep-dive category data and insights. Therefore, it is ideal for category beginners looking for “Inland Freight: Procurement Report 101” as well as for category experts actively tracking the global Inland Freight procurement market.

You may have just initiated your research to design a winning Inland Freight procurement strategy, or you may be a category expert looking for strategic insights and updated data.Either ways, the report has your requirements covered.

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Key questions on Inland Freight procurement answered by this report

Procurement decisions can prove to be costly in the absence of careful deliberation and evaluation of every available option. In fact, more than 90% of the decision makers we work with acknowledge that timely availability of up-to-date category intelligence can help them make better purchasing decisions. More than 80% of them believe that in-house category intelligence needs to be updated periodically to achieve full benefits. If you have read so far, we are quite sure you agree!!

The Inland Freight procurement report helps take more informed decisions by placing all the critical information and advice at the fingertips of a decision maker. It also specifically answers some of the key questions that we have been routinely asked during our industry outreach initiatives:

What is the spend potential in the Inland Freight market?
What is the correct price to pay for Inland Freight? What are the key trends and factors that influence current and future pricing?
Which selection criteria are the most important for Inland Freight Suppliers Market?
Who are the top Inland Freight suppliers? What are their cost structures?
Which negotiation levers can reduce Inland Freight procurement cost ?
What are supplier margins in Inland Freight market?
What are the best practices for Inland Freight procurement and what are the potential risks?

SpendEdge Insights has helped procurement professionals and sourcing teams manage multiple spend areas and achieve more than $2 billion in savings. Activate your free account today!

Inland Freight Category Insights: What is inside

The Inland Freight market report offers a complete picture of the supply market and analyzes the category from the perspective of both buyers and suppliers. Analysis of the category trends, procurement best practices, negotiation levers and overall category management strategy advisory are interspersed with in-depth data and commentary on spend outlook, pricing ecosystem and supplier landscape drilled down to a region-level coverage.

Data

A key highlight of this report is the in-depth outlook created on Inland Freight procurement spend and pricing trends. The report further delves deep into the aspects of cost structure, total cost of ownership and supplier margins for Inland Freight. A dedicated section to supplier profiles and evaluation helps decision makers cast a wider procurement net and identify gaps in existing relationships.

Insights

Along with specific category and supplier intelligence, the publication also includes curated insights on Inland Freight market trends, price influencers and inherent risks. These insights help the decision makers prepare for market shaping trends in advance and create alternative strategies for changes in the market conditions.

Advisory

Additionally, the report also advises on the best practices and strategies to manage the Inland Freight category efficiently. Negotiation levers and opportunities are explained in detail along with quantification of their potential. Benchmark KPIs for supplier and buyer performance management are also aggregated to better organize the category objectives. Other themes of advisory include ideal procurement organization structure, enablers to achieve KPIs or category objectives and ideal SLAs to have with suppliers.

Category Ecosystem

Buyer and supplier ecosystem
Competitiveness index
Buyer and supplier power
Threat of new entrants and substitutes

Global and Regional Sourcing Insights

Category spend
Spend growth
Dynamics
Opportunities

Pricing and Cost Analysis

Pricing outlook and data
Drivers of pricing
Cost structure and inputs cost
Total cost of ownership
Pricing models and margins

Cost Saving Opportunities & Negotiation Strategies

Buyer and supplier side levers
Quantified cost saving opportunities
Negotiation strategies and quantified outcome

Procurement Best Practices, Strategy and Enablers

Procurement excellence
Sustainability and innovation
KPIs and category enablers
Risk management and outsourcing

Vendor Analysis

RFx essentials and selection criteria
SLAs
Supplier evaluation metrics
Detailed supplier profiles

Our research is complex, but our reports are easy to digest. Quantitative analysis and exhaustive commentary is placed in an easy to read format that gives you an in-depth knowledge on the category without spending hours to figure out “what does it mean for my company?”

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Category Research Framework

SpendEdge presents a detailed picture of Inland Freight procurement solutions by way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. The analysts have presented the various facets of the market with a particular focus on identifying the key category influencers. The data thus presented is comprehensive, reliable, and the result of extensive research, both primary and secondary.