Tuesday 23 July 2013

Have you opened your logistics bonnet recently....?

Good afternoon All

I was driving down the motorway today and an interesting thought came to mind which connected the world of logistics to the cars we drive today.

Most people would agree that cars are becoming more and more complex, and even basic servicing is beyond most of us, either for fear of breaking something or for not having the specialist tools or expertise to carry out the job ourselves.

We're therefore pretty resigned to the fact that if we want our car to remain reliable, safe and efficient that we should entrust the work to qualified motor vehicle technicians, who spend every day of their life working on increasingly complex vehicles.

And that's when I had the thought - logistics is a very specialised field too, however many companies never give their logistics model a service, MOT or winter safety check!  In truth, it may work reasonably well from a service perspective and the freight/duty costs are "what they are"...checking freight invoices is not something that many customers feel confident about or enjoy doing, quite understandable given the number of different charges and acronyms used!



So often, their challenge is that even though they know their freight model is not the greatest, they wouldn't know where to start in researching better or more cost effective alternatives, and in many companies, they do not have the resources or expertise to carry out a professional logistics RFQ and selection process.

We generally work with small-medium sized UK importers and exporters who spend £50-£500K per annum on air and ocean freight costs and most of our customers so far had the very same dilemma, quite understandable in small-medium sized companies who have very flat organisational structures and often little in-house expertise.

Their initial concern is that they could not afford to employ consultants on a traditional day rate fee model and so w
e operate on a results based fee model which generates significant freight savings (average 35% across all clients since 2009) and leaves the client with the lion's share of the cost savings and a leaner, more customer focused logistics model.

We carry out the whole process for the customer from an initial assessment onto the RFQ, selection and then implementation, and then managing the new freight model for them to ensure rates are charged as agreed, services are monitored and rates are re-negotiated to ensure their new costs are kept under tight control.

We offer a free no-obligation meeting to importers/exporters in the North West so we can explore what opportunities there may be and we have some excellent testimonials, many of which are quoted on our website and LinkedIn.

So the next time you think that your car needs a service, consider whether your logistics model would benefit from the same expert attention, you'll be glad you did.

Kind Regards


Andy Cliff

http://www.straightforwardconsultancy.co.uk/


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