Moving from good to great: Growing into the next stage of transportation maturity
Logistics teams have spent the better part of a decade investing in technology like TMS platforms, visibility tools, analytics dashboards. In some ways, their investments have paid off: most are now using data to power faster tracking and more sophisticated planning capabilities. But in others, these investments are still falling short.
According to PwC's 2025 Digital Trends in Operations Survey, 92% of operations and supply chain leaders say their technology investments haven't fully delivered the expected results, with integration complexity and data quality cited as the top barriers. “Value,” the authors write, “comes from using tech well, which often means investing in new architectures.”
So how do teams break through these barriers? In our experience working across hundreds of shipper operations, most organizations stall in the same places and for similar reasons. A maturity model framework can help remove the complexity of individual operations to identify common bottlenecks, helping logistics teams close the gap between the technology they've invested in and the outcomes they expected from it
What is a transportation management maturity model?
A transportation management maturity model helps shippers evaluate the efficiency of their current supply chain operations. It’s a tool our experts use to run diagnostics with current and prospective customers, benchmarking their supply chain health and identifying where they're stalling. We often compare it to a standard vitals check: assessing general health before going deeper.
The four stages of network maturity
The transportation maturity model ranges from Stage 1 to Stage 4, ranking operations from chaotic execution to fully integrated network management.
Stage 1: Firefighting and fragmentation
Operations are considered chaotic. Visibility is limited, and decision making is manual and reactive.
What it looks like: Regions, modes, and teams operate in silos. Routing decisions are spread across spreadsheets and inboxes. Teams spend most of their time responding to disruptions after they occur. Cost savings come from increased spot spend and more exceptions rather than proactive optimization.
Stage 2: Instrumented but reactive
Shippers have invested in technology, but operations are still reactive. Execution is monitored, but there is limited control over network performance.
What it looks like: A Transportation Management System (TMS) and visibility tools are used. Dashboards and reporting exist, but manual decisions are still made, often lane-by-lane and week-by-week. While teams work to optimize costs, initiatives are often difficult to maintain or scale.
Stage 3: Coordinated network management
Cross-functional planning, execution, and service processes exist. But while shippers can respond more dynamically, siloed optimization still happens.
What it looks like: Teams collaborate across modes and carriers. Routing guides and carrier strategies are more agile, so adjustments can be made across lanes. Decisions are proactive, leading to fewer surprises, reduced spend, and more consistent service levels.
Stage 4: Continuously orchestrated network
Transportation operates as a fully orchestrated system, with continuous optimization across the network. Operations are a strategic advantage rather than a reactive function with technology, experts, and carriers operating as a unified system.
What it looks like: Teams have real-time insights into costs, service, capacity, and overall network performance. Network-wide intelligence—often powered by multi-shipper networks—helps anticipate capacity constraints or cost pressures before they occur, enabling continuous, network-level optimization.
Today, Stage 2 remains the industry standard. These teams have invested in technology, but they're still operating in silos with fragmented workflows—spending more time managing exceptions than making proactive decisions. The shippers who reach Stage 3 and begin building toward Stage 4 are the ones who've evolved their operating models alongside their technology. That means moving beyond internal tools and tapping into a broader network—often, via a managed transportation partner.
When a Pacific Northwest paper producer faced unpredictable production schedules, limited carrier availability, and seasonal shortages, they turned to Uber Freight. As a managed transportation partner, Uber Freight was able to rework internal processes to save the company $5.2 million annually, while giving them full visibility into inbound and outbound freight with the TMS.
Increasing maturity by unlocking the power of a full network
The value of a managed transportation partner comes from pairing skilled operators with the technology, network data, and capacity infrastructure that most shippers can't build internally.
That broader lens changes what's possible. Instead of benchmarking against internal data, shippers gain visibility into lane performance, capacity trends, and freight market conditions across the network. And the value extends beyond transportation: network-level data like on-time departure rates and facility performance scores can help surface problems upstream—underperforming facilities, inventory bottlenecks, manufacturing instability—that would stay hidden in a shipper's own reporting. Over time, this intelligence is what helps shippers move from Stage 2 to Stage 3 and beyond.
Uber Freight's managed transportation model is built on the power of our multi-shipper network. By connecting freight across a broader ecosystem, our network data helps shippers see patterns across supply chains—and beyond them.
One way our team does this is through a Logistics Engineering Value Assessment (LEVA). A LEVA provides a comprehensive, end-to-end view of a shipper's network, including rate and peer benchmarking, LTL pooling, spot freight savings, and more. On average, companies have also seen a 9% to 15% improvement in logistics cost positions while maintaining service levels.
Our managed transportation teams then use this data to develop strategies that drive better outcomes, from optimizing procurement channels to helping shippers navigate disruption in real time. For example, an auto parts retailer managing a complex inbound network and a high volume of returns realized it needed to bring all modes under one partner. By expanding its long-standing relationship with Uber Freight into a multimodal partnership, the company saved $1.3 million in 2025. Uber Freight’s team has also worked to continually optimize operations, recently identifying a cross-dock LTL redesign that’s projected to save the retailer an additional $2 million annually.
With Uber Freight’s multi-shipper network intelligence and expert guidance, shippers gain what software alone can't deliver: the operational foundation to grow and execute at scale without adding complexity.
Uber Freight's network includes 125,000+ truckload carriers and strong intermodal relationships. Trusted by 1 in 3 Fortune 500 shippers, our managed transportation model has helped customers drive more than $1B in savings and deliver an average 3x ROI year over year.
Looking to uplevel your transportation management in 2026? Our teams have the resources you need: Connect with an Uber Freight representative today.