Welcome to our fourth annual transportation procurement benchmark report. American Shipper, in partnership with the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) and the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA), surveyed roughly 275 transportation buyers and sellers on procurement practices, processes, technologies and results.

Some key findings:

• Manual, spreadsheet-based procurement processes remain the most prevalent among transportation buyers, with 42 percent of the total

• Another 25 percent of respondents use a hybrid platform, which presumably means these buyers are using spreadsheets for at least one mode and/or geography

• Only 23 percent of buyers are using a completely systems-based approach of some kind

• Shippers were in a holding pattern with regards to investment in procurement systems the past year

• Roughly three-quarters of survey respondents report that transportation spend has increased in 2012, although the pace has declined slightly from last year’s increases

• Nearly every survey respondent purchases multiple modes of transportation

• The number of respondents with plans to address technology to support the procurement process has increased in 2012. About one quarter of respondents who do not have a system report they have a budget for this investment in the next two years.