The recent volatile fluctuations in the world's oil market have placed additional heat and light on this already critical cost component in the world of distribution.
Contributing to this key cost measurement are:
- Inbound and outbound costs
- Driver shortages
- Safety
- Maintenance
- Fleet utilization including back or line haul opportunities
- Optimization
- Carrier management
- Fuel
Certainly the availability of transportation management tools is well known.
Questions such as, "How big do I need to be (or maybe how small can I be) to take advantage of the emerging technologies that are being used to bring this 'beast' under control?" should be investigated.
