Exam 3 Flashcards
Service related factors affecting logistics costs?
Speed, reliability, customization, and additional services.
What does faster service in transportation, order picking, and shipping generally incur?
Increased fee.
Another name for rush orders?
Expedite orders.
What may rush orders require?
Worker overtime and/or faster modes of transportation.
What do time guarantees or more reliable service quality cause you to incur?
Additional or higher base rates.
What does customization generally incur?
Higher cost.
What do more customization options on logistics tend to reduce?
Economies of scale.
Examples of additional service related factors affecting logistics costs?
Specialized tracking, extra packaging or crating, customs documentation, etc.
What do additional services generally incur?
Added fees in warehousing and transportation costs.
Product related factors affecting logistics costs?
Weight, density, dollar value, susceptibility to damage, and special handling requirements.
What specific costs does weight affect?
Transportation costs and to a lesser extent, warehousing costs.
As weight increases, what happens to logistics costs?
Typically increase.
What specific costs does density affect?
Transportation and warehousing costs.
What specific costs does dollar value affect?
Warehousing, inventory, transportation, packaging, and materials-handling.
As density increases, what happens to transportation and warehousing costs?
Tend to decrease.
What happens to transportation and warehousing costs as the risk of damage to a product increases?
The higher these costs will be.
What costs does a need for special handling usually increase?
Warehousing, transportation, and packaging.
Do origin and destination affect transportation pricing?
Yes
What may operational needs of the carrier do to prices?
Lower them.
What do nearly all transportation contracts have?
Fuel surcharge component.
What does FSC stand for?
Fuel surcharge.
What does the fuel surcharge vary to protect against?
Fluctuations in fuel prices.
What type of fuel mode is most affected by FSC’s?
High-intensive fuel modes.
What are FSC typically adjusted by?
National averages of fuel prices.
What is economy of distance?
The cost per unit weight decreases as the distance increases.
What is economy of distance also referred to as?
Tapering principle.
Why does economy of distance happen?
Longer distances allow fixed cost of the carrier to be spread over more miles, lowering the per mile charge.
What is economy of weight?
Transportation cost per unit of weight decreases as load size increases since the fixed cost are spread over incremental weight.
What does the tapering principle look like graphically?
What does the economy of weight look like graphically?
What is economy of density?
Higher shipment density products allow for more weight to fit on transportation vehicle and tend to be easier to handle.
What does economy of density look like graphically?
What is cost-of-service pricing?
Price based on the cost to the carrier.
What does the cost-of-service pricing generally set?
The pricing floor or minimum charge.
What is the average-cost approach?
Rates are based on average costs.
What is the marginal/variable cost approach?
Rates are based on the cost of producing one or more unit of an output.
What is the value-of-service pricing?
Price based on what the customer is willing to pay.
What does the value-of-service pricing generally set?
The price ceiling or maximum charge.
What happens to the charge of logistics services for higher value products?
Tend to be charged more.
Why are logistics services charged more for higher value products?
There is more risk but the commodities can bear higher prices as logistics costs would be a smaller percentage of the final sale.
What are short-term pricing schemes?
Spot-market rates
What are spot market rates?
Negotiated on the spot generally for a single instance.
What are spot-market rates common for?
Expedited logistics or extra service.
What do spot-market rates consider?
Current balance of supply and demand.
What are long-term pricing schemes?
Benchmarking, cost-plus pricing, discounts on published rates, and revenue splits.
Where are published rates common?
In LTL and small parcel.
How to increase discounts on published rates?
Committing greater volume.
Where are revenue splits more common?
In brokerage.
What are revenue splits usually coupled with?
Benchmarking.
Where do you split revenues?
Below target rates.
What is the class rate system?
System to simplify the potential complexity of trillions of possible shipments.
Where is the class rate system common?
LTL shipments.
How does the class rate system simplify pricing complexities?
By grouping geographic points and distances into rate basis, and commodities into a freight class.
Steps for simplifying geographic points and distances?
Group points from similar origins and find the rate basis.
How to simplify commodity types?
Find freight class.
What does the NMFC stand for?
National Motor Freight Classification.
What is the NMFC?
A classification scheme to cluster product types based on cost to transport.
What does a higher freight class represent in the NMFC?
A higher price that will be charged for a given weight.
What is the NMFC based on?
Density, liability, and handling characteristics.
Why do base rates vary slightly among different carriers?
Carriers publish their own tariffs.
What is the rate basis similar to?
Number of miles.
What can we think of logistics performance as nowadays?
The overall ability of the firm and its supply chain partners to efficiently and effectively fulfill products and services to customers while meeting customer service, cost, quality, and sustainability objectives.
How do you measure logistics performance cost?
Customer service, cost, quality, and sustainability.