Pproject44 Freight Procurement Agent

project44 Freight Procurement Agent in Enterprise Truckload Sourcing

Early deployments of project44’s Freight Procurement Agent cut freight spend by 4.1%, the company said when it launched the agent on February 26, 2026. It went live inside project44’s Intelligent Transportation Management System in March. The agent checks contracted rates against the market, flags weak lanes, runs digital mini-bids with carriers and makes awards inside rules the shipper writes.

Pricing is quote-based and the buyer is an enterprise shipper. The data behind it is large: 259,000+ connected carriers and 1.5 billion shipments a year. The project44 Freight Procurement Agent scores 8.2/10 on our scale, with high marks for autonomy and integrations and a lower mark for pricing transparency.

Rate Checks, Mini-Bids and Awards in the project44 Agent

Freight procurement at large shippers has usually meant an annual request for proposal, a spreadsheet of lanes and weeks of email with carriers. Rates are locked for a year while the market moves. When contract rates fall behind, carriers reject tenders and loads slide into the spot market at higher prices. The project44 agent replaces the annual cycle with continuous checks.

Benchmarking Contract Rates

The agent compares each lane’s contracted rate with prevailing market pricing. It flags lanes where the shipper is paying above market and lanes with heavy spot exposure.

Launching Mini-Bids

For flagged lanes, the agent launches digital mini-bids on its own. A mini-bid covers a handful of lanes and a short list of carriers, so it can run in days.

Scoring Carriers on Tracked Reliability

Bids are assessed on price, transit speed and reliability. The agent draws on project44’s logistics data graph, and outcomes from past shipments feed into later sourcing decisions.

Recommending or Executing Awards

Under configurable business rules, the agent either recommends an award or makes it. Negotiated rates pass directly into execution in the TMS, and shipment outcomes feed back into the next sourcing round.

Where the Agent’s Authority Stops

Customers set the agent’s authority: rate thresholds, carrier eligibility and contract parameters. Inside those limits it can negotiate renewals by itself. For new carriers, expanded lanes or spot opportunities it produces scenario analysis and a recommendation for the procurement team. All actions are auditable, and shippers can begin in recommendation-only mode.

A Dallas-Atlanta Lane, Step by Step

Suppose a shipper’s contract rate on a Dallas-Atlanta dry van lane sits well above the current market, and a fifth of its loads on that lane have gone to spot. The agent flags the lane and opens a mini-bid with eight eligible carriers. Three respond under the shipper’s rate ceiling. The agent scores them on price, on-time history and transit time, and the best score belongs to a carrier already on the approved list. Because the rate is under the threshold and the carrier is eligible, the agent awards the lane and pushes the new rate into the TMS. Had the winning bid belonged to a carrier the shipper had never used, the agent would have sent the scenario to procurement.

The lane and numbers are our illustration of the rules project44 describes.

What Procurement Staff Still Do

People set the rules and handle the exceptions. Procurement decides the rate ceilings, which carriers are eligible and which contract terms are fixed. It reviews every recommendation for a new carrier, a new lane or a spot opportunity. It also owns carrier relationships, which a stream of mini-bids can test. The agent takes over the repetitive part: watching the market, sending bids, comparing replies and loading rates.

project44 Results, Scale and Company Figures

The 4.1% figure is the one to plan around. It is modest next to the 75% and 70% numbers, and that makes it believable. project44’s CEO calls freight one of the largest controllable costs in the supply chain, and four points on a large budget is a large sum. The 75% and 70% figures measure time, which matters most to understaffed procurement teams.

The positive cash flow and new ARR growth that FreightWaves reported point to a vendor with a steady business. The July split is a signal to watch. Shippers stay with project44, while logistics providers move to LSP44, so a 3PL evaluating the agent should talk to LSP44.

Sizing the Savings Before a project44 Quote

project44 sells the agent within its Intelligent TMS on enterprise contracts. There is no public price, so the case is built from your freight budget.

We used project44’s reported 4.1% and a more cautious half-rate case. The half-rate column is our assumption for lanes already sourced well. Compare either figure with the contract price, implementation cost and the staff time spent running the TMS.

Time Savings for a Procurement Team

A team that runs four mini-bid rounds a year, each taking three weeks, spends 12 weeks in sourcing. At the reported 75% reduction, that falls to three weeks. The four rounds and three weeks are our example inputs.

Costs Outside the License

Three costs sit outside any quote. The first is moving procurement and execution onto the project44 TMS if you run another system today. The second is staff time to write and review the authority rules. The third is carrier goodwill: a carrier that loses several mini-bids in a row may stop bidding. Put a figure on the first two before comparing savings with price, and agree a rebid frequency with your key carriers.

Questions for the Sales Call

• Licensing: Is the agent priced separately or bundled into the Intelligent TMS?
• Volume basis: Does price scale with shipments, lanes or users?
• Migration: What does moving procurement and execution onto the project44 TMS involve?
• Proof: Can project44 share a reference shipper of similar size and mode mix?
• Modes: Which modes beyond truckload does the agent source?

project44 Agent Against Pando Pi, Keelvar and Pallet

We built this table from each vendor’s official pages as listed in our directory.

project44’s advantage is its carrier performance data. Reliability scores come from tracked shipments, so the agent can weigh a cheap carrier against its on-time record. Keelvar suits teams that run large, complex tenders. Pando Pi bundles procurement with audit and payment. Pallet works for providers and brokers, the audience project44 now serves through LSP44.

More options are in our logistics agents category.

What 750 G2 Reviewers Report on project44

G2 lists 613 five-star, 117 four-star, 15 three-star, 2 two-star and 3 one-star reviews, for 4.7 out of 5. The most cited positives are ease of use (86 mentions), customer support (59), customer satisfaction (56), tracking (55) and real-time tracking (41).

The negatives are carrier issues (28 mentions), tracking issues (27), poor customer support (20), technical issues (17) and integration issues (17). G2’s summary also notes the interface can feel overwhelming for new users.

Carrier and tracking data issues matter for the procurement agent, because it scores reliability from the same data. Ask how the agent treats carriers with thin tracking history.

The positive themes carry over too. Reviewers who praise the visibility product are describing the data the agent uses to judge carriers. A shipper already happy with project44 tracking has a head start, since that history is in place before the first mini-bid.

Getting a project44 Agent Pilot Running

• Pick the lanes: Choose 20 lanes with the highest spot share or the widest gap to market.
• Record a baseline: Note current rate, spot share, tender rejection rate and sourcing cycle time for each.
• Write the rules: Set rate thresholds, eligible carriers and contract terms with finance.
• Start in recommendation-only mode: Compare the agent’s picks with the team’s for a month.
• Widen authority: Allow automatic renewals on lanes where the picks matched and invoices fell.

Keep the pilot to one mode and one region. A clean comparison is easier to defend to finance than a broad rollout with mixed results.

Shippers Suited to the project44 Agent

• Manufacturers and CPG brands with big truckload networks: Small rate gains across many lanes add up.
• Shippers with high spot exposure: The agent flags lanes leaning on spot and rebids them.
• Lean procurement teams: Mini-bids and renewals run without weeks of email.
• Existing project44 visibility customers: Carrier performance data is already flowing.

When Another Freight Tool May Fit Better

• 3PLs, brokers and forwarders: project44 moved this audience to LSP44 in July 2026.
• Small shippers: An enterprise TMS contract may outweigh the savings.
• Shippers committed to another TMS: The agent works inside project44’s Intelligent TMS.
• Teams wanting public prices: Every project44 deal is quoted.

Limits and Contract Points With project44

• Vendor-reported results: The 4.1%, 75% and 70% figures come from early deployments; measure your own baseline.
• Authority creep: Review rate thresholds each quarter so automatic awards stay inside budget.
• Carrier relationships: Frequent mini-bids can strain partners; agree how often each lane may be rebid.
• Data quality: Reviewers mention tracking gaps, which feed the reliability score.
• Audit trail: All actions are auditable; confirm how long logs are kept.

Launch to LSP44: project44 in 2026

On February 26, 2026, project44 launched the Freight Procurement Agent, with founder and CEO Jett McCandless calling freight procurement one of the largest controllable cost drivers in the supply chain. FreightWaves reported the agent would be available in the Intelligent TMS in March, and that project44 agents had sent nearly 1 million automated carrier communications in the past year, improving data quality by up to 30%.

On July 14, 2026, project44 created two businesses. project44 keeps enterprise shippers. LSP44 serves 3PLs, forwarders and brokers with ten agents, including Carrier Procurement, Rate and Quote, and Freight Audit and Settlement, and says nine of the ten largest global 3PLs run on it. CEVA Logistics, BlueGrace Logistics and Worldwide Express were quoted in support.

project44 Procurement Agent Earns 8.2 From Us

The agent scores 8.2/10 on our scale. It makes awards and renewals by itself inside rules the shipper controls, with an audit trail and a recommendation-only starting mode. Its reliability scoring draws on tracked data from 259,000+ connected carriers, and the platform has 750 G2 reviews averaging 4.7.

project44 could publish pricing guidance and named customer results for the agent. A shipper already on project44 should pilot it on 20 lanes with the highest spot share, in recommendation-only mode for the first month, and compare the agent’s picks with what the team would have chosen.

If the picks match and savings show up on invoices, raise the rate threshold on those lanes and let the agent award renewals by itself. Keep new carriers and new lanes in recommendation mode. That split matches the authority model project44 describes. Review the thresholds each quarter as the market moves.

Shipper Questions About the project44 Agent

How Much Does the project44 Freight Procurement Agent Cost?

project44 does not list a price. The agent is sold in its Intelligent TMS on enterprise contracts after a demo.

Can the Agent Award Freight Without Approval?

Yes, within rate thresholds, carrier eligibility and contract parameters the shipper sets. New carriers, expanded lanes and spot opportunities go to procurement as recommendations.

How Much Can Shippers Save?

project44 reported a 4.1% reduction in freight spend in early deployments, up to 75% shorter sourcing cycles and 70% less manual coordination. Results depend on lanes and the market.

Is the Agent Available to Freight Brokers?

Brokers, 3PLs and forwarders are served by LSP44, the business project44 created in July 2026, which offers a Carrier Procurement agent.

Can a Shipper Start Without Automatic Awards?

Yes. project44 lets customers begin in recommendation-only mode, where the agent proposes awards and people approve them, and expand automation over time.

How Does project44 Score Carrier Reliability?

The agent assesses carriers on price, transit speed and reliability, using project44’s logistics data graph of tracked shipments.