Transport, Logistics & Services is heading into 2027 with uneven purchasing controls and payment-term differences worth examining. Median Indirect purchase order coverage is 29.2%, while industry-wide supplier payment terms are 32.8 days. These findings come from Sievo’s State of Spend 2027: Transport, Logistics & Services, based on USD 38.6 billion in procurement spend from Q3 2025–Q2 2026.
For companies moving people and goods or delivering business operating services, the benchmarks help answer three questions:
This article presents selected findings from one of ten industry editions.
Explore the complete State of Spend 2027 findings across 10 industries.
The report shows an industry where supporting services account for a substantial part of procurement activity. Indirect spend represents 51.8% of the analyzed dataset, compared with 48.2% for Direct spend.
The distinction reflects how purchases are used:
The cohort also extends beyond transport operators. It includes facilities management, construction and engineering, environmental services, security, and leisure and hospitality.
That breadth matters. A purchased service may be Direct for one operating model and Indirect for another. The dataset’s spending split is therefore a reference point, not a prescribed industry mix.
Implication for 2027: Check category definitions before comparing performance. Indirect Logistics and Fleet benchmarks do not represent all logistics and fleet purchasing across the sector.
Median PO coverage is 51.7%, and procurement spend represents 37.9% of revenue. The industry snapshot also shows the contractual payment window and actual payment timing.
| Procurement KPI | Industry median |
|---|---|
| PO coverage | 51.7% |
| Payment terms | 32.8 days |
| Due-to-pay | +7.2 days |
| Spend as a share of revenue | 37.9% |
| Spend per invoice | USD 2,300 |
| Spend per supplier | USD 376,000 |
Source: Sievo, State of Spend 2027: Transport, Logistics & Services, page 8. Period: Q3 2025–Q2 2026. Figures are peer-cohort medians.
Compared with Q3 2024–Q2 2025:
Spend per invoice and spend per supplier are averages calculated within each company, then benchmarked at the cohort median.
These figures establish the industry baseline. Category comparisons show where that baseline conceals different purchasing practices.
Indirect purchasing has lower median PO coverage than Direct purchasing, with a substantial difference between the median and upper-quartile Indirect benchmark.
| Selected PO coverage benchmark | Value |
|---|---|
| Direct median | 43.9% |
| Indirect median | 29.2% |
| Indirect upper-quartile reference | 68.7% |
Source: Sievo, State of Spend 2027: Transport, Logistics & Services, pages 10 and 13. Period: Q3 2025–Q2 2026.
Transport, Logistics & Services has the lowest Total Indirect PO coverage among the ten industries analyzed. Yet the upper-quartile reference shows that substantially higher coverage exists within the same industry.
For your team, the useful questions are:
Potential maverick spend belongs in that review, but non-PO purchasing is not automatically unauthorized.
Implication for 2027: Investigate the reasons behind your coverage gap before setting a target. Quartile benchmarks describe peer positions, not universally appropriate operating practices.
Facility Management accounts for 33.0% of cumulative Indirect spend from 2023 through H1 2026, the highest share among the ten industries analyzed. Spending increased 6.7% in H1 2026 compared with H1 2025.
For an industry that includes transport infrastructure and business operating services, this is a category worth examining beyond its total budget.
The report identifies Construction Services as accounting for roughly half of Facility Management spending and much of its volatility. A review should therefore distinguish:
The report’s category charts are spend indexes, not price indexes. The spending-growth analysis uses a consistent company set, but that does not isolate price inflation. Comparable purchases are needed for meaningful price benchmarking.
Implication for 2027: Separate project-related movements from recurring costs before deciding which Facility Management contracts or requirements need attention.
Sievo models USD 998 million in potential working-capital opportunity if bottom-quartile payment terms matched top-quartile terms across the analyzed Indirect categories.
The scenario covers:
The calculation applies each term gap to category spend and divides by 365. It represents hypothetical cash release, not realized savings or a forecast.
The report also finds that industry payment terms trail cross-industry medians in 10 of 11 analyzed Indirect categories. This provides a reason to examine agreements, but not to impose the same terms across every supplier.
For a transport operator or operating-service provider, working capital optimization must account for pricing, discounts and supplier relationships.
Implication for 2027: Use your own spend and contractual terms to assess potential. The full report identifies which categories contribute the largest modeled opportunities.
Supplier concentration is above the cross-industry median in 8 of 11 analyzed Indirect categories, measured by the share of category spend allocated to the top 20 suppliers.
The finding describes relative concentration, not a change over time. It does not establish that companies should automatically add suppliers.
For operating services, the practical assessment concerns delivery dependencies:
These questions connect concentration with supply continuity. A supplier count alone cannot show whether an alternative is operationally suitable.
Implication for 2027: Review supplier criticality alongside concentration before deciding where consolidation or diversification makes sense.
The findings support four industry-specific priorities:
These are planning implications derived from historical transactions, not predictions for 2027.
Comparisons become more useful when they reflect your operating model, geography and purchasing categories. Within Sievo Community Data, teams can compare peer benchmarks with their own category, country and supplier data.
The edition analyzes USD 38.6 billion in procurement spend for Q3 2025–Q2 2026, using purchase orders, invoices and supplier transactions from explicitly opted-in Sievo customers.
The data is:
Medians represent the 50th percentile. For PO coverage and payment terms, top and bottom performers represent the 75th and 25th percentiles. These are reference points, not universal targets. The due-to-pay ranking does not recommend late payment.
Longer-term spending analyses cover Q1 2023–Q2 2026. The 2027 title identifies the edition rather than a forecast period.
No. It also covers operating-service providers in facilities management, construction and engineering, environmental services, security, and leisure and hospitality. Differences between these businesses matter when selecting relevant category benchmarks and interpreting industry-wide medians.
No. Freight and warehousing services consumed directly in customer delivery fall within the report’s Direct definition. Indirect Logistics covers supporting purchases under that classification, so it should not be treated as total logistics expenditure across the industry.
Industry-wide median PO coverage is 51.7% for Q3 2025–Q2 2026. Direct and Indirect medians are 43.9% and 29.2%, respectively. These are separate benchmarks and cannot be combined to reconstruct the overall median.
No. The 6.7% increase compares H1 2026 spending with H1 2025. It does not isolate supplier prices from changes in project activity, purchasing volumes or service mix. Comparable pricing data is needed to assess inflation.
No. The USD 998 million scenario applies category-level payment-term gaps to analyzed Indirect spend. Individual potential depends on purchasing profiles, contractual terms and negotiation outcomes. The model excludes Other Indirect spend and does not represent realized savings.
The Transport, Logistics & Services edition provides the category benchmarks and peer distributions behind these selected findings.
Across ten separate industry editions, the series covers:
Explore the complete State of Spend 2027 findings — all 10 industry reports.