Kraft  Foods has eliminated more than 50 million truck miles since 2005 through a focus on transportation sustainability efforts.  The company made these sustainability improvements by shifting wheat shipments from truck to barge and by using technology to reduce costs and emissions in transportation.  

Kraft's initiative is called Project MOST (Management of Optimized Sustainable Transportation) and utilizes Oracle's Cooperative Routing which is an integrated option for Oracle's Transportation Management application.  By looking at your entire logistics network over time, Cooperative Routing has allowed Kraft to strategically examine the use of carrier and fleet resources in their supply chain.  It does this by identifying historical shipping patterns and determining optimal asset utilization, while bringing visibility to potential continuous move opportunities.

Kraft has achieved a strategic approach to transporation by mostly eliminating one-way freight with the establishment of permanent lane assignments that have improved service, reduced costs and lowered their carbon footprint.

Despite the lower spending levels at most companies and tough ecomomic climate, companies realize the benefit of investing in a transportation solution can reduce costs.  According to a recent Aberdeen survey, nearly 70 percent of companies for the firm’s second quarter 2009 AXIS report on TMS say that they currently have a mandate from management to make technology recommendations for transportation-related solutions with 54 percent of respondents planning to adopt a related solution in the next 18 to 24 months.

AMR Research also has a new report that discusses the robust TMS savings that firms that invest in a transportation solution are receiving.  According to AMR, TMS solutions offer considerable savings potential including "freight budget cost reduction, route and mode optimization, more competitive delivery options, and reduced network inventory levels".

Given the cost pressure that organizations have been under recently, the adoption of Transportation Management System (TMS) software has been strong.

The number of companies that are utilizing a TMS has risen from 28% two years ago to 38% today. It is remarkable that still only 38% of companies have a commercial TMS package which shows that there plenty of growth potential for the software vendors.  The volatility of fuel prices and the desire to reduce costs has spurred investment in TMS solutions which can reduce freight costs from 5%-30%.

http://www.scdigest.com/assets/On_Target/09-06-30-3.php

Logistics Management has published their 2009 Logistics Technology Roundtable and some key findings are that companies continue to invest in Transportation Management Solutions (TMS) as a way to reduce costs, improve productivity, increase service levels and meet new regulations.  Companies have shown great interest in utlizing Transportation Procurement solutions as a means for lowering their freight costs.  

Since utilizing a TMS has proven to save 5 percent to 25 percent of a companies freight spend depending on how manual their processes are, companies are willing to invest in the technology, even with the poor economic conditions.  Companies that invest now will be able to be leverage their improved efficiencies when fuel prices rise and capacity gets tighter.  Here is the link to the read the full report:  

 http://www.logisticsmgmt.com/article/CA6655601.html

Transportation Management Systems (TMS) enable the collaborative sharing of data throughout organizations and often lead to more informed decision making.  In this video of Beth Enslow, senior vice president for supply chain risk at Marsh Inc.discusses the collaboration within organizations and why eight out of nine TMS users are now outside the transportation department.  Here is the link to the complete video (supplychainbrain.com registration required):

http://newsletters.supplychainbrain.com//lt.php?id=KUoLBgQLUwECAUVfDFdOUAdTAVA%3D