Where are logistics managers spending their transportation money these days? According to the 17th Annual Survey on Trends and Issues in Logistics, 36 percent of a company's annual freight budget gets spent on truckload shipments. National less-than-truckload carriers are second, receiving on average 14.2 percent of a company's freight budget.

Besides freight dollar expenditures, the survey also found that companies are shying away from developing their own software and are turning to third-party logistics (3PL) companies for help in this area. Only 19 percent of survey respondents said they employ in-house software programs, compared to 27 percent the previous year. On the other hand, 24 percent of survey takers said they use 3PL-provided programs compared to 18 percent in 2007.