For years, transportation procurement has largely followed a familiar playbook: Shippers issue an annual request for proposals, carriers submit rates, and those contracts are expected to hold steady until the next bidding cycle. Today, that approach has become much harder to sustain.

As freight markets tighten, regulatory changes have reshaped carrier capacity, and transportation costs have become less predictable. As a result, many shippers are finding that traditional requests for proposals (RFPs) offer less certainty than they once did. Carriers that agreed to rates months earlier may no longer be able to honor them, while market conditions can shift long before annual contracts expire.

"We're seeing some customers shift their attention," says Jordan Strawn, SVP of brokerage for Werner.

Transportation markets rarely stand still, but 2026 has presented a particularly challenging environment, where a combination of tightening trucking capacity, regulatory enforcement, higher operating costs and continued market uncertainty has made long-term pricing much harder to predict.

For decades, transportation procurement often focused on finding the lowest rate for individual lanes. That transactional approach works well when market conditions remain stable, but it becomes much more difficult when capacity changes throughout the year. Suffice it to say, today's environment requires a broader view.

One of the biggest opportunities for building flexibility comes through greater use of intermodal transportation. Historically, intermodal was often reserved for predictable, long-haul freight where transit times were less critical. Improvements in rail service have expanded where that mode can fit into transportation networks.

Building resilience ultimately comes down to having options before disruptions occur, and holiday shipping peaks offer a clear example. Retailers routinely experience sharp increases in freight volumes during seasonal surges, putting additional strain on available trucking capacity. But, a mode-diverse strategy allows freight to shift between available options instead of forcing shippers into expensive last-minute decisions.

As transportation markets continue to evolve, that flexibility may become one of the most valuable assets of any supply chain. In the end, organizations that combine multiple transportation modes, share better forecasting information and build stronger carrier partnerships are always going to be in a better spot to adapt on the fly.