How resilient is freight sourcing today?
Insights from the Transporeon Freight Survival Challenge on how the market really responds when disruption hits.
The Freight Survival Challenge puts logistics and procurement professionals into the same disruption storyline: a single lane hit by a cost spike, tightening capacity and a visibility blackout. Step by step, they choose what they would actually do when lanes tighten and phones start ringing.
Challenge snapshot
The challenge is live, and new participants are joining all the time. This visual report captures the first clear picture of how logistics and procurement professionals are responding inside the simulation.
At each stage of the storyline, they decide how to handle cost, capacity, and visibility. The percentages you’ll see are based on the options that real professionals have selected the most so far. As more people take part, the numbers grow, but these patterns have already settled.
The resilience curve
The completed challenges reveal four distinct resilience profiles in freight sourcing. Taken together, almost six in ten participants already sit in the two strongest profiles, Resilient or Leader. However, even among them, many still feel exposed when the market moves faster than their current processes.
AT RISK
Running on hope, not on a strategy. Heavy manual workarounds, late bookings and very limited data redundancy when a feed fails.
VULNERABLE
Good instincts, but still sweating too much. Contracts and back up plans exist, yet daily firefighting still runs on calls, emails and spreadsheets.
RESILIENT
Cool under pressure, but still doing a lot by hand. There is a clear playbook and digital tools, but many checks and decisions still depend on individual effort.
LEADER
Confident under pressure, with room to grow. Rules based automation and redundant data let teams focus on proactive exception handling.
What their decisions reveal
Cost spikes and contract strategy
When costs jump, most teams reach for short term fixes. In the first 48 hours after a spike
32% pass surcharges straight to customers
27% trigger indexed clauses
25% lean on contracted terms
16% simply absorb the hit
To adjust sourcing
- 46% launch targeted spot tenders on key lanes
- Only 17% use automated re tender rules across all impacted lanes
- The rest run ad hoc manual tenders or wait for the next RFQ cycle
Spot and surcharges are still the default. This suggests that many teams either lack flexible contract tools or find them hard to use quickly when a spike hits.
Capacity partners and back up plans
Backups exist, but they are often managed as one off fixes.
During the spike
42% manually add one or two back up partners on affected lanes
40% still pick up the phone to secure extra trucks
23% automate per load allocation based on live partner quotes and rules
30% auto launch mini tenders and auto award using rule sets
Mode choices
- About a quarter stick to road only with no mode shift
- Another quarter run proactive intermodal programmes with pre vetted partners
This points to a clear intent to diversify capacity, but also to processes and systems that are still heavily built around manual decisions.
Planning horizon and booking behaviour
Most freight is still booked within a very short window.
When the squeeze is on
42% confirm loads 24 to 72 hours before loading
31% confirm 12 to 24 hours ahead
19% secure loads 3 to 7 days in advance
8% are still booking on the same day
Short booking horizons limit the options available. Many teams focus on reacting fast today rather than building the agreements and tools that would allow earlier commitments.
Data resilience and customer visibility
Visibility is strong for some, fragile for others.
When the main port or terminal data feed fails
33% fall back to manual check ins by phone or email
32% enjoy full redundancy with multiple feeds into a control tower or TMS
28% have partial redundancy from a subset of partners
6% are effectively blind until service is restored
“We need better visibility, not just one source. The port scenario showed how risky it is to be highly dependent on a single hub and then totally cut off from it.”
Costin Lungu, iB Cargo
With degraded visibility
32% rely on manual exceptions
24% rebalance in batches every few hours
30% already run continuous rules based reallocation using confidence weighted signals
To keep customers informed
37% send daily status updates
Around one in five still use ad hoc calls and e mails only when issues arise
20% have partial redundancy from a subset of partners
21% offer an integrated dashboard with alerts and fallback feeds
The big picture
Across all questions, one pattern stands out.
Most teams:
- Have contracts, back-ups and tools in place.
- Still rely on spot and manual heroics when disruption hits.
- Are testing automation, emissions data and intermodal options, but have not scaled them.
If your playbook feels stretched, you’re not alone. The Freight Survival Challenge shows that almost everyone sees the same cracks. What matters now is how quickly you can fix them.
Where Transporeon changes the outcome
Transporeon connects sourcing, execution and visibility on one neutral platform, so you can move from manual heroics to predictable, data driven decisions exactly where the challenge showed the most pressure.
Smarter sourcing and procurement
- Dynamic RFQs and automated retendering when thresholds are breached
- Spot and contracts managed in one place
- Rules based award to the best compliant offer
Stronger capacity and network orchestration
- Digital access to pre-vetted back up partners and intermodal options
- Automated allocation based on live performance and your rules
- Collaboration tools that keep carriers engaged without extra emails
More resilient data and visibility
- Redundant data feeds from carriers, terminals and telematics
- Control tower view across modes and partners
- Confidence scoring so teams know what they can trust during an outage
Every stress point in the challenge is an area where Transporeon can help you respond differently next time.
READY TO ACT ON YOUR RESILIENCE?
The Freight Sourcing Challenge shows that most organisations already know where they are exposed.
When you take the Freight Sourcing Challenge, you see where you sit on the resilience curve and which practical steps can move you towards Leader status, so you can act on those insights before the next disruption hits.
© 2025 Trimble Inc.
© 2025 Trimble Inc.