According to the latest study conducted by the Pentor Institute for Opinion and Market Research (April 2006), for Polish companies choosing a logistics operator, price is what counts most. As many as 90 percent of managers who took part in the study indicated it as the most important factor for them. Other elements taken into account are timeliness and speed of service.
500 people who are responsible for logistics, transport, or freight forwarding in their companies on a daily basis answered the interviewers’ questions. The respondents are people employed in companies with annual turnover exceeding PLN 10 million, operating in the trade and manufacturing sectors. Price, timeliness, and speed of service turned out to be the most significant elements when choosing a logistics operator. On the other hand, reliability, solidity, brand, scope of services, flexibility, or type of fleet do not matter much and were indicated by only 5-12 percent of respondents.
Tomasz Oczkowski, Director of Logistics and Development for the Central and Eastern Europe Region at Wincanton (the company Wincanton commissioned the research), does not fully agree that price is the only important factor when choosing a logistics service provider. – In tenders, price often plays a major role. However, due to strong market competition, financial factors are no longer enough to acquire a client. High quality of services provided is also very important. Our clients pay more attention to the safety and stability of operations. Minimizing business risk associated with changing the organization of the entire supply chain is key for them. Winning a tender can be decided by the company’s experience, its flexibility and speed in responding to market changes, but also the ability to change warehouse locations, IT solutions, and redesign the entire supply chain in the fastest possible time.