The importance of quality attributes of transportation in the total logistic costs. A decision maker’s choice for a certain transport mode is not only influenced by the simple transportation costs, but also by other, more qualitative elements. These quality attributes are, next to transportation time, reliability, safety, flexibility and frequency of the transport service. The goal of this paper is to incorporate these quality attributes in the modelling of the total logistic costs, to find out to what extent they are part of the logistic cost and whether they can be separated from the pure transport cost. The paper begins with an elaboration of the theoretical model on total logistic costs. In a next step, emphasis is put on the quality attributes. Two methods to analyse the relative importance of those qualitative factors in the total logistic costs are described. For that purpose a case study is developed intended to check the models actual applicability. The case study itself is described in the third part. The paper is a work in progress. So, the subject is entirely open for discussion and critical remarks are greatly appreciated. (Author/publisher)
Abstract