Vilka faktorer inverkar vid valet av transportföretag?
En fallstudie om företagskunders resonemang och prioriteringar vid köp av transporttjänster och val av transportföretag.
During the last couple of years the focus for many businesses have moved from just being price oriented to include such factors as quality, flexibility, service, delivery precision and environmentally friendliness. The shift in viewpoint arises from the increasingly competition on the market and the hard economic atmosphere. It has become more important to differentiate the company and its products to be able to increase market share. The purpose with this master?s thesis was to get a better understanding on how companies (customer to DHL) are reasoning and prioritizing when choosing Swedish carriers. Of special interest was to find out how the factor environmentally friendliness is weighted to other aspects as price, quality and delivery precision. The thesis perspective is from the buying companies. The research interviews were addressed using a hermeneutic, in deductive and qualitative approach. Interview was chosen as the data generating method and conducted with purchasing or logistics managers from 12 companies. The participants in the survey represent different sales and manufacturing companies from five industries (retail sales, engineering-, telecom-, provisions- and security industry). These companies are categorized in three segment based on the amount of volume purchased from DHL. The thesis discusses a theoretical framework for among others like decision making and selection process, and discharge in analyze and conclusion. The result of the empirical study showed: * That there are significant differences in how the interviewed companies organize and select their carriers. Most of the participants use a rational selection process which involves evaluation of different alternatives on the market regarding carriers. * That the relationship between the buying company and the carrier has in many ways changed. Nowadays the buying company doesn?t change their carrier as often as they did before. They have even discovered the advantages close partnership can fullfil. * That companies of today are more interested in quality, price and precision when choosing carrier. Even though environment friendly transportations is not the first priority it is of more importance than a few years ago. * One of the twelve participants in the study purchase transports that have less negative impact on the environment (called ?green tonnage?). The reason for the poor interest in this ?product? can be explained by factors as: poor knowledge, small possibility to influence, insecurity and high price. Keywords: Decision making, selection process, green logistics, qualitative method and interview.