Benchmarking Logistics for Co-modality

Significant potential for improving transport efficiency, especially amongst SME
The transport sector is influenced and moulded by ongoing economic, environmental and political pressures to realise its potential for improvement. Differences in the performance of various modes within the transport sector of a given country, and between the transport systems of different countries, imply that there is a significant potential for improving the efficiency of the transport sector. Efficient use of transport modes and resources requires understanding the options and alternatives and being able to make the right logistics choices. Benchmarking is an instrument which can help to answer this question.

The major improvement potential in logistics performance is among small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), including shippers with relative small transport volumes. Representing 99% of all enterprises in Europe, SMEs contribute more than two thirds of European GDP and provide 75 million jobs in the private sector. About 600.000 companies are exclusively involved in logistics operations; 85% of these logistic operators are micro enterprises with less than 10 employees.

Improving performance by means of benchmarking
The BE LOGIC project (co-founded by the European Commission in the scope of the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Development), which officially started on 1 September 2008 with a duration of 30 months, aims to improve the quality and efficiency within and across different modes of transport, by means of benchmarking in logistics and co-modality. The focus of BE LOGIC lies on applying the logistics benchmark methodology on SMEs.

An important result of the project will be an e-tool that can be used by SMEs which aims to support a company’s search for potential strategic improvements due to a modal change. In order to compare the current practise with an alternative based on a different transport mode, six main criteria are used: time, cost, flexibility, reliability, quality and sustainability. The alternatives are compared with each other, giving a percentage difference on each of the criteria. The combination of these criteria provides the user with a broad overview of the potential effects of a modal change. The BE LOGIC tool makes use of the judgement of the user, a terminal database containing intermodal services and a calculation tool for emissions.

An online version of the tool is currently being developed, to enhance its user-friendliness and its accessibility. The tool is not yet available to the general public at this time, since it is still in its development phase. A final version is expected by the end of this year.