The logistics industry has a clear sense of where it is heading. More connected supply chains, stronger collaboration between shippers, carriers and logistics providers, and data flowing freely across networks rather than sitting locked inside individual systems. The direction is not in question. The gap is between that vision and where most organisations actually stand today.
According to Alpega’s Transport Leadership Benchmark, a May 2026 study conducted with Adelante SCM surveying nearly 300 supply chain and logistics executives and carriers across Europe, that gap is wider than many realise.
Everyone Agrees on the Destination
The study reveals a striking degree of alignment on priorities. The large majority of shippers regard maintaining strong relationships with carriers and logistics partners as a major competitive advantage, and see network integration as a strategic priority, citing improved visibility, better coordination and faster decision-making as the expected benefits.
Transport is no longer simply about moving a shipment from A to B as efficiently as possible. It is increasingly about orchestrating a network of partners, flows and information that functions coherently as a whole. The challenge is that understanding a direction and being ready to move in it are two different things.
The Operational Gap Is Wider Than It Looks
Despite that strategic clarity, the operational reality tells a different story. Only 27% of shippers consider themselves well integrated with their logistics partners. Among carriers and logistics providers, that figure rises to 65% — a gap that reflects how differently each side of the relationship experiences the same network.
For half of shippers, the main barrier to faster decision-making is a lack of complete, up-to-date data, made worse by systems and partners that do not communicate with each other. Siloed organisations, competing priorities between departments, and misaligned stakeholder expectations all slow down the transformation efforts that leadership has committed to at a strategic level.
Data Fragmentation Is the Real Obstacle
Carriers highlight the same problem from their side. Inconsistent information shared by shippers and other supply chain stakeholders makes reliable planning difficult. When the data coming in is incomplete or contradictory, even well-run operations struggle to perform consistently.
The integration gap identified in the research requires both the right technology and shippers who are willing to examine the quality and consistency of the data they share with their partners. Cleaner forecasts, more consistent booking patterns and earlier demand signals do not just help carriers plan better. They improve the quality of everything the network produces, including the service shippers receive in return.
The companies pulling ahead are those that have recognised this. The strategic advantage in modern logistics does not come from optimising your own operations in isolation. It comes from extending connectivity across company lines and building the kind of shared network that competitors still confined to their own systems cannot easily replicate.
From Transactional to Orchestrated
This points to a more fundamental shift in how logistics needs to work. The transactional model — where each shipment is managed as a discrete interaction between a shipper and a carrier — is increasingly insufficient for the complexity and speed that supply chains now require.
Roughly two-thirds of respondents now rank real-time visibility, reliable execution and transparent communication as equally critical priorities for the future. Competitive advantage will no longer come solely from how well a company manages its own operations. It will come from how effectively it coordinates partners, data and decisions across the entire network.
Bridging the Gap
The good news is that the industry knows what it needs to do. The vision is shared and the priorities are aligned. What remains is the harder work of building the foundations to support them.
A few questions are worth asking honestly. How well does your data actually flow to your logistics partners today? Are your systems set up to share information across the network, or primarily to manage your own operations? When you evaluate a logistics partner, are you assessing their ability to integrate and collaborate, or mainly their rates and capacity?
Getting clear answers to those questions is where the gap between ambition and readiness starts to close. The organisations that will lead the next phase of logistics will be those that combine the right technology with the organisational foundations to make collaboration possible at scale.
Patrick van Denzel is Chief Revenue Officer at Alpega. He has spent his career at the intersection of transportation, logistics, and supply chain technology, with previous roles at FedEx and Transporeon.
Why Logistics Ambition Is Outpacing Operational Readiness: What Shippers Should Do About It
The logistics industry has a clear sense of where it is heading. More connected supply chains, stronger collaboration between shippers, carriers and logistics providers, and data flowing freely across networks rather than sitting locked inside individual systems. The direction is not in question. The gap is between that vision and where most organisations actually stand today.
According to Alpega’s Transport Leadership Benchmark, a May 2026 study conducted with Adelante SCM surveying nearly 300 supply chain and logistics executives and carriers across Europe, that gap is wider than many realise.
Everyone Agrees on the Destination
The study reveals a striking degree of alignment on priorities. The large majority of shippers regard maintaining strong relationships with carriers and logistics partners as a major competitive advantage, and see network integration as a strategic priority, citing improved visibility, better coordination and faster decision-making as the expected benefits.
Transport is no longer simply about moving a shipment from A to B as efficiently as possible. It is increasingly about orchestrating a network of partners, flows and information that functions coherently as a whole. The challenge is that understanding a direction and being ready to move in it are two different things.
The Operational Gap Is Wider Than It Looks
Despite that strategic clarity, the operational reality tells a different story. Only 27% of shippers consider themselves well integrated with their logistics partners. Among carriers and logistics providers, that figure rises to 65% — a gap that reflects how differently each side of the relationship experiences the same network.
For half of shippers, the main barrier to faster decision-making is a lack of complete, up-to-date data, made worse by systems and partners that do not communicate with each other. Siloed organisations, competing priorities between departments, and misaligned stakeholder expectations all slow down the transformation efforts that leadership has committed to at a strategic level.
Data Fragmentation Is the Real Obstacle
Carriers highlight the same problem from their side. Inconsistent information shared by shippers and other supply chain stakeholders makes reliable planning difficult. When the data coming in is incomplete or contradictory, even well-run operations struggle to perform consistently.
The integration gap identified in the research requires both the right technology and shippers who are willing to examine the quality and consistency of the data they share with their partners. Cleaner forecasts, more consistent booking patterns and earlier demand signals do not just help carriers plan better. They improve the quality of everything the network produces, including the service shippers receive in return.
The companies pulling ahead are those that have recognised this. The strategic advantage in modern logistics does not come from optimising your own operations in isolation. It comes from extending connectivity across company lines and building the kind of shared network that competitors still confined to their own systems cannot easily replicate.
From Transactional to Orchestrated
This points to a more fundamental shift in how logistics needs to work. The transactional model — where each shipment is managed as a discrete interaction between a shipper and a carrier — is increasingly insufficient for the complexity and speed that supply chains now require.
Roughly two-thirds of respondents now rank real-time visibility, reliable execution and transparent communication as equally critical priorities for the future. Competitive advantage will no longer come solely from how well a company manages its own operations. It will come from how effectively it coordinates partners, data and decisions across the entire network.
Bridging the Gap
The good news is that the industry knows what it needs to do. The vision is shared and the priorities are aligned. What remains is the harder work of building the foundations to support them.
A few questions are worth asking honestly. How well does your data actually flow to your logistics partners today? Are your systems set up to share information across the network, or primarily to manage your own operations? When you evaluate a logistics partner, are you assessing their ability to integrate and collaborate, or mainly their rates and capacity?
Getting clear answers to those questions is where the gap between ambition and readiness starts to close. The organisations that will lead the next phase of logistics will be those that combine the right technology with the organisational foundations to make collaboration possible at scale.
Patrick van Denzel is Chief Revenue Officer at Alpega. He has spent his career at the intersection of transportation, logistics, and supply chain technology, with previous roles at FedEx and Transporeon.
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