How are truckers using Activity Based Costing to improve bottom line results?
Most carriers are using it from a number of different perspectives. Step one is that they actually sit down and do an internal cost audit. They’ll actually sit down and look at the business and say, “What are we doing that we could do differently that would reduce the cost of this business and therefore make us more profitable. Once they’ve answered that question and start moving on that action plan, their second step is to sit down with the shipper and say, “Look, we like doing business with you. We’re not here to talk about rates. All we want to talk about is, this is the business we’re doing, this is what it’s costing us, and this is the profit (actually the loss in many cases). We want to know if you have any ideas or suggestions about things that we can do that can reduce our costs of doing business with you. And what might they be, how can you help us with that.” That could be earlier pick-up appointments or later pick-up appointments; it could be earlier delivery appointments or
