Uber Freight: Enhancing Procurement Decision-Making

Uber Freight is making logistics simpler and streamlining workflows across procurement. 

By blending intelligence and automation, the business is reshaping freight operations and transforming procurement processes. 

Procurement teams are set to enjoy increased productivity, cost savings and reduced risk thanks to Uber Freight's platform. 

A modernised system

Uber Freight's transformation of its transportation management system (TMS) in 2024 created an opportunity for a more integrated system. 

The latest modernisation, particularly within TMS Financials, promises to give shippers better visibility and control over their freight finances, allowing teams to act faster and more confidently with enhanced transparency. 

Through the updated TMS platform, teams can take full control of their procurement processes, certain they have the full picture of their businesses' financial situation.

With Uber Freight's TMS portal, operators can track and manage the full order-to-cash journey, rather than requiring several disjointed systems, reducing the risk of errors and missing information.

Procurement teams can be the first part of a streamlined workflow, with faster end-to-end accounts receivable (AR) and accounts payable (AP) process. 

Practitioners can benefit from a full overview of money owed to their business, as well as money the business owes to suppliers and vendors, providing full visibility into the company's financial situation.

The new tools are set to reduce dispute resolution times by up to 20%, with shippers gaining faster resolution and carriers receiving more efficient payment cycles.

“From procurement to payment, shippers face constant complexity across the freight lifecycle," says Steve Barber, VP of Product at Uber Freight.

"Through continued investment in platform innovation, Uber Freight delivers the tools, automations, and integrations that simplify the work and unlock meaningful outcomes such as faster decisions, smarter cost control, and more resilient supply chains.”

AI implementation

Uber Freight has a wider vision for the TMS, with the aim of making it a real-time logistics command centre imbued with AI, creating faster solutions with more risk assessment predictions. 

Uber Freight uses AI to automate repeatable tasks so human teams can work on more pressing issues. Its Gen AI capabilities allow shippers to receive proactive recommendations to build their confidence, with agentic AI building on that to add real-world action into the shipment lifecycle. 

Customers are already seeing results:

• Scheduling times are cut by up to 38%, with costly reschedules being cut by 33% due to automated scheduling tasks
• Overdue load statuses are reduced by 15% and delay durations are cut by almost 80% through captured carrier arrival and departure times
• Detecting and correcting PRO number errors with automatic corrections for more accurate ETAs

With Uber Freight's agents, procurement processes from contract negotiation to invoice approvals are becoming more transparent with less errors and less extra costs.

The implementation of AI allows logistics teams to focus on strategy and customer priorities rather than repetitive tasks. 

The procurement platform

Uber Freight Exchange, the contract freight procurement platform, allows shippers to utilise scenario analysis to explore strategies before making their procurement decisions. 

This provides them with the ability to confidently transform their freight procurement to meet larger business goals.

Now, logistics teams can make instant side-by-side comparisons of costs  and services with real-time data rather than relying on weeks of manual data collection. This will help strengthen network reliability, reduce costs, calculate projected savings and carrier performance. 

With TMS, teams can create a closed loop between procurement planning, bidding and optimisation, meaning the streamlining of execution and reducing of reliance on other parties. 

Uber Freight is looking towards building the ultimate unified logistics platform, creating a space which brings together intelligence, automation and human expertise in one place to oversee the entire freight lifecycle. 

The company is transforming procurement with its own ecosystem to better connect planning, management and execution of its transportation and freight software.

It's hoped this will lead to more resilient networks with more accurate, faster decision-making using adaptable technology to meet changing supply chain demands.