Transportation & Logistics

Simon-Kucher has helped leading logistics companies earn significant profits from the unique value they deliver to customers. Over the past decade, we’ve developed solutions for all kinds of topics, from strategies to implementation plans, for companies moving all kinds of goods, from letters to containers. We have conducted projects on four continents for carriers, freight forwarders and ports.

The logistics industry has experienced major ups and downs over the last decade. They include:

• Highly dynamic fuel prices that force companies to develop the right fuel surcharge policies
• Continually eroding profits because of unsuccessful general rate increases.
• Many big deals and longer-term contracts causing long-term forecasting issues
• Ports and container organizations suffering from turnover decreases, and in response turning to damaging price defense activities
• Organizations grappling with complex price lists and multiple price points
• Firms suffering from declining sales (and less effective sales organizations) in maturing markets

These issues alone have become huge problems for many transportation and logistics organizations. Our projects for these companies include:

• End-to-end pricing process optimization for an air cargo carrier, realizing benefits of 0.7m Euros (annualized) in three months
• Developing innovative discount structures and surcharges for a courier, express and parcel business; just one new surcharge delivered an upside of 1 million Euros in under a year
• Product development and price optimization for the post-deregulation phase in the postal market, boosting earnings from existing customers
• Price optimization in the rail cargo industry, from pricing process redesign to price level changes
• Optimizing the global sales and bidding process for a multinational tender
• Reconfiguring sales force compensation
• Developing a peer pricing model an international parcel delivery organization