A recent survey from Manhattan Associates found that 78% view transportation management as a strategic imperative for success and this figure rises to 86% by 2030.
However, there are difficulties, as 48% of organizations spend more than 10% of their transportation logistics budget on errors and disruptions, according to the survey.
Other challenges include 50% of those surveyed who report issues in proactively rerouting shipments, while 49% struggle with optimizing dock and warehouse labor scheduling
Fragmented systems: operational visibility and efficiency still challenging
While a majority have integrated their transportation management systems with sales and operations planning systems (60%) and are utilizing predictive analytics or AI (56%), far fewer are capitalizing on key enablers such as historical trend analysis (38%), automated booking and tendering (36%), or real-time demand sensing (35%).
Beyond disruptions, however, 60% of organizations say that enhancing visibility leads to greater customer satisfaction, through more accurate and timely updates, while 50% cite reductions in transportation costs as a key benefit of increased operational visibility.
The AI revolution: excitement but readiness challenges
While many might view five years in the AI space like an eon, the gap between future expectations and current usage is noteworthy given adoption is rarely straightforward: although almost half (48%) said that they already feel very prepared for autonomous agents by 2030, practically every organization (99%) reported facing, or expecting to face, hurdles, with concerns including skill shortages (49%), integration difficulties (44%) and data quality and availability issues (44%).
To address these issues, 61% are anticipating fully autonomous agentic AI, capable of acting independently to achieve specific goals, or minimal human oversight within the next five years for TMS.
And 82% express strong confidence that advances in planning, forecasting and modelling will reduce freight costs by at least 5% within the next five years.
Sustainability compliance: a priority and significant pain point
The push for more sustainable transportation is widespread. 69% of organizations say sustainability is either a global mandate or an area of significant pressure, with 62% already implementing corporate sustainability directive reporting.
Organizations are still struggling to operationalize sustainability: only 34% say they’ve factored sustainability into operational planning, 30% into procurement decisions and just 31% offer carbon-friendly fuel solutions.
Navigating complex and shifting compliance requirements remains a global challenge, with sustainability compliance most frequently cited as a constraint expected to impact organizational performance over the next five years.
“Modern transportation management demands organizations balance a range of competing priorities and the research clearly illustrates many organizations are still unprepared to meet the challenges of evolving sustainability mandates, expectations around AI and the need for more visible, actionable data insights, said Bryant Smith, director, transportation management systems (TMS) at Manhattan Associates., in a statement. "Looking ahead to 2030, these demands will intensify, increasing the pressure on organizations to operate transportation operations in smarter, more intuitive ways.
