‘Tis the season, and for supply chain workers, it’s certainly not the most wonderful time of the year. No, we’re not talking about the holidays. We’re talking about what comes after—the notorious period that everyone in supply chain dreads—contracting season. For those unfamiliar, contracting season is the time of year when every company that ships goods negotiates contracts with its logistics and transportation providers. To say these negotiations are intense is actually kind of an understatement, and the terms …
that wind up in these transportation contracts aren’t just dizzyingly complex, they’re the exasperated result of hundreds of hours of stress, scrutiny, analysis, over-analysis, argument, and bargaining. In short, contracting season is brutal. And everyone knows it. But like many rituals, this supply chain tradition goes on, year after year, in this arduous manner because, well, that’s how it’s always been done. But does it have to be this way?