Electronic Procurement of Transportation Services

Book excerpt: This book deals with the electronic procurement of transportation services. It provides an overview of the fundamentals for the procurement of transportation services, including the relevant objectives, involved parties, and processes. A focus is set on Electronic Transportation Marketplaces (ETMs) which offer main functionalities for the procurement of transportation services on the spot and contract market as well as additional functionalities to improve further processes (e.g., time-slot management). Even though such marketplaces are important from an economic and ecological perspective, previous research provides only little knowledge about the status quo of their use, the determinants of marketplace use and the link between this use and business value. To close these research gaps, Philipp Sylla builds a comprehensive conceptual research framework and conducts an empirical analysis based on a web survey of shippers in Germany. The empirical results build the foundation for the development of an evaluation concept that provides practical support for shippers in the assessment of marketplace use and the evaluation of potential business value impacts.