Outsourcing of road maintenance activities to private contractors has become a typical practice across many National Road Agencies (NRA). Although the involvement of the private sector offers efficiency gains, the procurement of road maintenance requires from NRAs the development of a different set of skills and competences and may come with the risk of losing other knowledge that cannot be easily replaced. Thus, understanding the consequences of choosing an appropriate procurement strategy is essential for NRAs to be competent and informed clients. The procurement practices of nine NRAs are investigated to show which maintenance procurement strategies NRAs adopt, how the context can influence the procurement trajectories of NRAs, what the effects are of these strategies on maintenance outcomes, and which skills and competences are needed to follow certain strategies. The paper also discusses the lessons learnt of the investigated NRAs in terms of level of outsourcing and contractual integration of maintenance activities.