Trimble's new Freight Marketplace gains traction with Procter & Gamble in North America

Trimble has launched its Freight Marketplace in North America, securing Procter & Gamble as its first shipper customer and expanding its digital freight ecosystem to streamline procurement and enhance supply chain collaboration.

Trimble has announced Procter & Gamble (P&G) as its first shipper customer for the newly launched Trimble Freight Marketplace in North America, marking a significant step in the company’s expansion of its digital freight procur...

ement ecosystem. The Freight Marketplace, which has been operating in Europe since 2023 through Trimble’s Transporeon platform, connects shippers, brokers, and carriers within a single digital environment to facilitate real-time capacity sourcing and enhance collaboration across the supply chain.

According to Trimble, the Freight Marketplace functions as a centralised procurement platform catering to shippers and carriers of various sizes. It allows users to broaden their transport networks, identify dependable partners, and tap into competitive pricing via automated bidding for both spot and strategic freight opportunities. The platform’s capabilities include simplifying contract negotiations by organising mini bids tailored to single lanes with clearly defined timeframes and volume commitments. Additionally, integrated AI tools automate the verification of carrier identity and insurance details, streamlining processes traditionally requiring manual checks and improving security and accuracy.

Michael Kornhauser, sector vice president of transportation and logistics at Trimble, highlighted P&G’s adoption as a testament to the company’s commitment to addressing the complexities of modern supply chain management. Emily Conner, senior director of transportation purchases for North America at Procter & Gamble, remarked that the platform simplifies the intricate process of managing numerous mini bids, saving time and helping P&G discover new carrier partners while strengthening relationships with existing ones.

The North American launch builds on Trimble’s strategic acquisition of Transporeon in 2023, a leading cloud-based transportation management software platform. Transporeon manages a global network of more than 150,000 carriers and 1,400 shippers and retailers and processes over 25 million transports annually. This acquisition has significantly expanded Trimble’s addressable market by approximately $5 billion and positioned it to offer a comprehensive suite of sourcing, planning, execution, monitoring, and settlement tools within the transportation segment.

In Europe, where the Freight Marketplace was first introduced, over 7,000 carriers, shippers, and brokers have already joined the platform, benefiting from automated bidding and AI-driven validation. Trimble’s rollout in North America aims to replicate this success by offering a similarly integrated network, with over 400 carriers currently engaged in the region.

Furthermore, Transporeon has recently enhanced its Freight Marketplace to include the European freight exchange segment for forwarder-to-carrier spot business, an area traditionally dominated by freight exchanges. This move introduces features like an intuitive interface, integrated negotiation tools, and AI-powered carrier verification, offering a modern, efficient alternative and expanding the platform’s usability for clients with spot freight needs.

Through these advancements, Trimble is positioning itself as a pivotal technology enabler in global freight transportation, leveraging cloud-based platforms and AI to overcome industry inefficiencies. The introduction of the Freight Marketplace in North America, notably with a major player like Procter & Gamble as an early adopter, underscores the growing momentum for digital freight procurement solutions that promise to streamline operations and foster stronger collaboration across fragmented logistics networks.

Source: Noah Wire Services