Sitting Down with Mike Hain, Lead of Industry at Descartes to Discuss the 8th Annual TMS Benchmark Survey
Mike Hain has over three decades of experience spanning transportation-based projects, executive consulting, various software organizations, and now go-to-market solutions with Descartes. At Descartes, Mike focuses on Transportation Management Solutions, connectivity, and other collaborations. Descartes, a Canadian-based company was founded in 1981 and has its roots in the movement of data, commerce, shipping, business logistics, and global trade intelligence.
Descartes Global Transportation Management Survey
This year marks the eighth year of the Global Transportation Management Survey. This year is special because Descartes used a third-party research firm to assist in the management of the collection of survey data. The survey was an online format that was mainly focused on the US, Canada, and Western European markets. They targeted respondents with titles of manager or higher and worked in a transportation or closely related industry. They had 630 respondents, which was almost double the number of respondents in previous years. The insights from the report are published for the public and used internally at Descartes to better understand and validate their business strategies. The overarching theme of the survey is to understand better what businesses are concerned with, what things organizations are doing well, and where the market may be headed.
What are some of the biggest impacts facing the market and regulatory challenges that respondents were concerned about?
This year and last year, fuel costs were the biggest impact on the TMS market, in second place were environmental regulations. Last year the top three impacts included carrier capacity and lack of drivers. Both of those fell out of the top three this year and were replaced by environmental regulations and overall career changes. Between the United States and Europe, driver shortage was Europe’s biggest concern as in the US it was ranked number two. Environmental regulations were Europe’s biggest concern as it was ranked number two for the US. Fuel remains to be a large worry for respondents across the board, between global conflicts and a steady inflated price, it remains on top of TMS professional minds.
What are some of the biggest trends within TMS technology?
Despite inflationary conditions, consumer spending is still high, three quarters of the respondents are still increasing their investment in IT over the next two years. The respondents were asked to select if they were choosing to increase investment by 1-5% or over 5%. This year, the proportion of respondents who selected over 5% has dropped. Respondents are still spending money and investing but the actual rate of investment has dropped to between 1-5%. Another interesting factor is that the top performers were two and a half times more likely to increase their spending by more than 5%, a strategic competitive weapon. Another interesting takeaway is that more people consider themselves a “fast follower” versus an “early adopter.” Signaling consumers are aware of new technologies and solutions but want to ensure that they are working for others before adopting it for themselves.
To find out more about Mike Hain and the Global Transportation Management Survey watch the interview here:
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