This year has been fraught with challenges for so many businesses around the world. Cost saving has become the hottest topic around boardroom tables, even more so than after the last recession.
If businesses are going to survive these incredibly tough and unprecedented times, they will need to re-evaluate their processes and spending habits. Here are 5 ways to cut costs in your transport business that will go a long way to help it to survive the rest of one of the most challenging periods in history.
1. Don’t Rely on Old Practices
To cut costs effectively in your transport business, it is imperative that you become flexible and adaptable. “Business as usual”, at least for the foreseeable future, is an outdated concept. For example, before COVID-19 you probably would never have dreamt of transporting goods by airfreight, it was simply too expensive. Sure, shipping by sea is much cheaper but the time this could end up taking these days could cost you greatly in sales. Take a good hard look at your current transport costs across the various modes, and then factor in the new delivery and arrival times these modes of transport have now and you will easily be able to see what impact this has on your business.
2. Consider Warehousing
If you are in the business of shipping multiple goods from point A to point B, particularly over long distances, you need to consider the option of warehousing these goods much closer to your customers. This will not only substantially reduce your overall transport costs, but it will also please your customers by shortening the time it takes for them to receive their orders and deliveries. The two biggest costs associated with warehousing are rental prices and security, thereafter other overheads like staffing costs and running costs need to be factored in too. This doesn’t need to be a permanent arrangement, instead try and find a short-term warehouse to lease that will just provide the basics if you need them.
3. Use Quality Fuel
Using below average quality fuel will all but destroy your transport business. These might seem cheaper initially and therefore makes them look like a good business move. They are, however, not. These cheap and nasty fuels will only end up costing your business so much more in the long run by damaging your vehicles and, at the very least, costing you tons in maintenance costs. Rather choose a reliable supplier like Beesley Fuels to supply you with quality fuel options.
4. Preventative Maintenance
Make sure you don’t skimp on the preventative maintenance of your fleet. There are many cost-effective programs you can implement in your organisation that will remind you of any, and all, preventative maintenance needed to be done on your vehicles.
5. Automate Your Loading Process
Cut labour costs drastically by automating your container loading and offloading processes. This not only saves on production costs by avoiding product damages, but it is also a more effective and efficient system in general. Your staff can be put to better use elsewhere where they can focus on making other improvements to the business.
