Services in the area of freight cost optimisation & freight service purchasing
Logistics service providers bill forwarders or clients for freight costs in a wide variety of qualities. But customers often neglect to check freight invoices and certainly do not proceed in a standardised manner. This is where freight cost management steps in. It detects deviations to the detriment of our customers and in doing so avoids unnecessary extra costs. Professional freight cost management also includes regular benchmarking of cost rates in order to find the right time for re-tendering freight. ebp-logistics provides support in establishing customised freight cost management and, if requested, can also perform freight service purchasing together with the customer.
Freight cost management
Standardised freight invoice audits to cut costs
- Integration of all invoices in a standardised workflow
- Freight invoice audits and freight cost controlling for all invoices
- Claim management to clarify any freight cost differences
- Connection of all relevant systems and data sources to digitalise freight cost audits and controlling
- Use of the credit note procedure for transport service providers
- Implementation support for freight cost management
Freight service purchasing
Reallocation of transports to exploit cost-saving potentials
- Analysis of potential for freight cost optimisation using benchmarks based on transport concept improvements
- Performance of shadow price calculations to determine target costs and potential savings
- Template-based re-tendering of transport services, from the specifications to contracting
- Selection of logistics service providers and comparative assessment of quotations
- Support in purchasing negotiations
- Standardisation of freight conditions
- Support & coaching in all aspects of changing logistics service providers
Why ebp-logistics?
- In-house expertise for transport optimisation and freight service purchasing
- We know the transport services market like the back of our hand
- Use of proprietary tools for freight invoice audits and freight cost controlling
- Use of benchmarks to asses transport costs
- Standardised procedure models and templates are part of our toolkit
- Support in digitalisation of freight cost management
- Independence from transport service providers as a 4PL provider
Current topics
Standardised checks of freight cost statements
All consignments and transport orders must be checked continuously and comprehensively as a standard practice at all companies in which transport costs are a relevant factor. The objective is to pay no more than for the transport and freight services that were commissioned and contractually agreed. State-of-the-art freight cost management is based on transparency of all freight costs, in a level of detail that permits the performance of monetary evaluations and resilient audits. Digitalisation is an absolute cornerstone for importing all freight invoices into the system and carrying out audits. Identifying deviations is a first step towards improving accounting quality with transport service providers, but they must also be communicated and clarified. Experience shows that on average, approximately four percent of freight costs can be optimised at once. A tempting business case which often enables the permanent establishment of standardised freight cost auditing within the company.
Freight service purchasing, a lever for cutting costs
Experience has shown that regularly checking the costs of freight services and using benchmarks as a comparison are highly recommendable practices. If a new tender on the transport market appears to make sense, cost savings of up to ten percent can be achieved – in normal times. The bases for goal-oriented tender management are, on the one hand, the improvement of the tender framework conditions, such as by optimising transport concepts/processes, and, on the other hand, the standardisation of freight conditions. Freight service purchasing offers strategic potential when attractive volume discounts can be obtained from the service providers in the future through bundling and consolidation effects instead of the previously very decentralised commissioning of transport service providers.