The State of Transportation Systems: TMS Lessons from 2025

Transportation management underwent steady but meaningful change in 2025. While dramatic innovation was limited, organizations made progress in modernization, connectivity, and decision support. The theme of the year was not transformation. It was alignment—aligning TMS capabilities with the realities of volatile markets, cost pressure, emissions requirements, and customer expectations for more reliable service.

As companies look toward 2026, the lessons of 2025 offer a clearer picture of how TMS platforms are evolving, where value is being created, and what operational constraints continue to limit performance.

Modernization Accelerated and Became More Practical

Organizations continued to migrate from legacy, on-premise systems toward cloud-native platforms. But 2025 marked a shift: modernization was not pursued for its own sake. Instead, companies moved strategically, often focusing modernization efforts on the most constrained, high-visibility transportation processes.

The winning modernization projects delivered:

• Cleaner API connectivity for rates, tenders, and tracking

• Modular configurations that avoided monolithic system redesign

• Reduced onboarding time for carriers and brokers

• Better data freshness across execution and visibility systems

Instead of implementing everything at once, most enterprises adopted incremental modernization—starting with visibility integration, rate automation, or fleet scheduling—and expanding gradually.

In 2026, modernization efforts will continue to focus on practical outcomes like reducing manual load, accelerating tender cycles, and improving ETA reliability rather than chasing sweeping transformations.

Continuous Insights Replaced Periodic Reporting

One of the most notable changes was the widespread adoption of continuous, event-driven transportation monitoring. Companies moved away from static weekly performance reviews toward ongoing visibility into network conditions.

The shift was driven by:

• the rise of real-time visibility platforms

• better quality location data

• improved ETA prediction

• more reliable carrier status updates

• API-fed telemetry replacing batch uploads

Rather than planning once and reacting later, transportation teams used near-real-time insights to:

• reroute shipments

• adjust pickup windows

• realign labor at docks

• escalate exceptions before they reached the customer

This “continuous planning” model reduced the latency between data, interpretation, and action.

In 2026, continuous insights will become standard. Static reporting will remain important for strategic planning, but day-to-day operations will revolve around dynamic decision cycles supported by live data.

AI Provided Targeted, Not Transformational, Wins

AI added value in transportation, but only in narrow, well-defined workflows. The strongest results came from AI’s ability to help evaluate alternates and reduce manual decision time.

Routing and Contingency Recommendations

AI helped planners identify viable alternates during:

• weather disruptions

• port congestion

• driver shortages

• regional bottlenecks

• sudden capacity changes

These recommendations did not replace planning expertise. They accelerated it. AI functioned as a scenario generator—offering options that humans could refine.

Load Matching and Asset Utilization

AI improved load matching for private and dedicated fleets by analyzing:

• empty miles

• driver hours

• backhaul opportunities

• dock availability

These gains helped companies squeeze more productivity from constrained assets.

Exception Prioritization

AI helped reduce noise in exception handling by:

• filtering out low-impact alerts

• grouping related exceptions

• identifying root causes

• recommending the best corrective action

In 2026, AI will integrate more deeply into TMS workflows, but its role will remain decision support—not autonomy.

API Integration Emerged as a Competitive Advantage

EDI still dominates transportation, but it showed clear limitations in 2025. Delays in status updates, inconsistent message quality, and slow onboarding pushed companies toward API-first connectivity.

Carriers with strong APIs gained share in:

• live tracking

• instant rate shopping

• automated tender acceptance

• more granular status updates

• lane-specific performance scoring

Shippers discovered that API-enabled carriers delivered faster, more accurate insights and fewer manual interventions.

In 2026, the shift will continue. EDI will remain for large carriers and structured freight networks, but APIs will power high-volume, time-sensitive, and cross-border operations.

Carbon-Aware Planning Began Its Move Into Execution

Sustainability efforts shifted from reporting to operational decision-making. Transportation teams began using emissions as a planning variable.

Companies applied emissions scoring to:

• mode selection

• carrier procurement

• consolidation decisions

• routing choices

• lane prioritization

Some organizations used TMS enhancements to compare emissions intensity between alternates during routing decisions.

Early adopters discovered that carbon efficiency often aligned with cost and reliability. Efficient lanes tended to be:

• better utilized

• more predictable

• more consistent in transit times

In 2026, carbon-aware routing will expand as regulators tighten expectations and customer requirements evolve.

Planning Cycles Compressed Under Persistent Volatility

Transportation volatility—capacity swings, geopolitical shifts, weather disruptions, and rising energy costs—forced companies to shorten planning cycles.

Teams moved from:

• quarterly → monthly carrier scorecards

• weekly → daily lane performance checks

• static → rolling forecasts

• annual → quarterly bid refreshes for variable lanes

This shift required better tools, better data, and better coordination across planning, procurement, and execution.

In 2026, planning cadence will continue to compress as continuous planning becomes the norm.

Visibility Data Became More Actionable

Visibility tools matured in 2025. The strongest improvements included:

• more accurate ETAs

• simplified exception categories

• more reliable location data

• better integrations with telematics providers

• higher consistency in stop-level information

Companies used this improved data to:

• reduce detention

• schedule labor more accurately

• improve dock turn times

• respond earlier to late pickups or missed connections

In 2026, visibility platforms will integrate deeper with TMS systems so planners can adjust execution directly from the exception screen.

Key Constraints That Persisted

Despite progress, several structural issues remained unresolved:

• carrier fragmentation

• inconsistent small-carrier data quality

• limited multimodal synchronization

• slow customs processes in certain regions

• capacity uncertainty tied to extreme weather

• energy price volatility

Technology softened these constraints but did not eliminate them.

What 2026 Will Require

Companies that want to improve transportation performance in 2026 will need to:

• strengthen integration discipline

• adopt real-time carrier connectivity

• incorporate emissions and energy variables

• improve scenario modeling

• refine carrier scorecards

• build continuous planning behaviors

• embed AI into exception and routing workflows

The organizations that succeed will treat the TMS as an active operations platform, not a passive system of record.

Final Takeaway

TMS evolution in 2025 was steady and practical. The systems that delivered the most value improved connectivity, reduced latency, and made planning more responsive. In 2026, transportation management will center on real-time coordination, AI-assisted decisions, and cleaner integration across the entire planning-to-execution spectrum. The companies that modernize incrementally, rather than overhaul everything at once, will see the strongest and most reliable gains.

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