A SmartBuyer transport specialist worked alongside the organisation’s Procurement team as Category Manager, taking hold of its transport spend and delivering over £1 million in annual savings within the first year.
annual savings, Year 1
CLIENT
Large
enterprise
CATEGORY
Transport
SPECIALIST
Transport
category management
OUTCOME
£1m+
saved in Year 1
Transport spend overruns because it is priced in many small pieces: a rate per route, then surcharges for fuel, waiting time and special handling, each agreed separately and rarely compared. Rate cards go stale as volumes and fuel costs move, and carriers know their own pricing better than the buyer does.
Fixing it route by route would not hold. When transport is bought in pieces by different budget holders, a rate cut on one route can push volume and cost to another, and nobody sees the net effect. The role was to act on market rates from the outset, not to spend time learning the category or the supplier base.
An enterprise with significant transport spend spread across many suppliers and routes, bought in pieces by different parts of the business and held by no single owner as a category.
Client identity not disclosed.
The specialist worked as Category Manager inside the Procurement team, acting on transport as its owner, with the standing to open rate and terms conversations with suppliers directly.
REVIEW
Build one view of transport spend
Combined spend by supplier, route and rate type into one baseline, including fuel, waiting and handling surcharges, so rates on similar routes could be compared and the charges outside the headline price became visible.
BENCHMARK
Prioritise the largest gaps
Tested each rate and term against market levels, separating the routes and suppliers where the gap was widest from those already competitive, so effort went first to the largest recurring cost.
NEGOTIATE
Secure the new terms
Reopened rates and terms with suppliers, using the market evidence and the combined volume as bargaining weight, and settled each change in the agreement itself so it bound for the contract term.
£1m+
Over £1 million in annual savings was delivered on transport spend across its suppliers and routes within the first year of the engagement.
The saving sits in standing rates and terms, so it repeats each year those contracts run rather than falling away after Year 1.
Transport now has one owner and a consolidated view of rates by supplier and route, so later drift can be spotted and challenged.
Establishing category ownership
Transport cost sat in rate cards and invoices held by different buyers, so no one could say whether two similar routes were priced alike. The specialist consolidated that data and set targets by supplier, giving the category one owner. Ownership comes first because suppliers negotiate harder against a buyer who cannot compare their rates with others.
Testing rates against the market
Market comparison showed which rates had drifted above current levels, and the specialist took those to suppliers first. Fuel, waiting time and handling terms were tested alongside base rates, since they can offset a lower headline rate. Aim first at standing rates and terms, where a change keeps paying, rather than one-off discounts, which fall away at the next renewal.
Complete
Complete
Complete
Specialist support without a permanent hire
SmartBuyer matches organisations with experienced specialists across 250+ categories, giving budget owners access to focused transport and category management expertise exactly when the work demands it.
500+
specialists
Experienced category specialists who have taken ownership of transport and other spend categories and delivered fast inside large organisations.
250+
categories
Focused coverage across transport, logistics and the wider operational spend base, matched to the category in hand.
Flexible
engagement
Specialist cover as a Category Manager for a single category or longer, scoped and costed before any work begins, with no permanent hire.